****loads of sayings and phrases come from biblical references, like 'holier than thou' and 'set your teeth on edge'. 'Raining cats and dogs' might come from Norse mythology but might just be because dead animals would get washed into the gutters during storms in times before people could be arsed picking these things up. 'Show your true colours' is from when 18th century pirates would fly false flags to encourage other ships to come close before hoisting the Jolly Roger at the last moment.
Turned into a good thread this... Potential! Good old Tel. Everybody else was letting it die a slow painful, no responses death.
Seeing eye to eye. Nothing new under the sun. Your numbers up. Writing on the wall. All biblical and of course how the mighty have fallen and pride comes before a fall both about Lucifer being given the Godly elbow.
Isn't 'through the eye of a needle' something to do with a biblical passage about it being more likely to get a camel through the eye of a needle than a rich man into heaven?
That`s exactly what it is. The eye of a needle refers to a very small opening in a wall barely large enough to let one person through.
Crocodiles do have glands which lubricate their eyes but while they`re chomping on some poor buggers leg it`s certainly not a sign of remorse. Hence the false bit.
Piping hot I think is from Scottish origin from ceremonies where the food was piped to the tables. Better be hung for a sheep as a lamb is from the days when starving folks were hanged for stealing a loaf of bread. In other words if you`re going to do it, make it worthwhile.
'Bite the bullet' is from when battlefield doctors didn't have anaesthetic so patients would have to bite down on something, often a bullet, to alleviate the pain. We must be talking Napoleonic wars or earlier
A similar one is 'caught red handed' from slaughtering an animal that didn't belong to you, but the only way you could be done for it was if you were caught with blood on your hands
