Not just NE sayings/terminologies but in general. ****. I know this one it means. Store high in transit. And old naval term as certain cargos kept exploding and sinking ships. But about some others. Turn a blind eye. Means look away. Something o do with a telescope in a battle. White elephant? Red Herring? False dawn? Time flys by...eh.? Anymore? Even better if you know where they stem from.
Middle ages, the poor would sell urine to the tannery. The family would all pee into a pot. The very poor sometimes had to borrow one - so poor they ''didn't have a pot to piss in''
There was an emperor in some oriental country, many moons ago, his wife (emperoress?) was being fanned by a servant and a passing bird dropped it's guts on the fan, the servant wafted little clumps of this **** into the face of her majesty... the emperor drew his sword and sliced the head off the servant. Hence the phrase... 'when the **** hits the fan'.
I've got a book on sayings and their origin, it's still packed though, might look it up later as it's a great book.
I watched a short interview earlier with some geezer. Which inspired such an epic thread Well it seemed interesting at the time.
White elephant I think is something to do with Indian deities. The albino elephants were especially sacred and were pampered beyond belief. They couldn`t be worked and costs an absolute fortune. I think the rulers gave them to rich courtiers who got a bit above themselves and ended up skinting them. Hence it`s an expensive burden with no useful purpose. I think that`s what it is.
I think, and this one is serious... 'Rule Of Thumb' had something to do with a bloke wanting to do his wife in with a broom and it was permissible by law, as long as the broom was no thicker than his thumb. It used to be Rule of dick, but men were getting hardons and going out to look for bigger sticks.
The red herring thing is about laying a false trail for hounds to follow and I think the blind eye one is Nelson putting the telescope to the eye he didn`t have. Every cloud has a silver lining. Any meteorologists figure that out?
