It ’s jolly amazing that some of the vernacular adage and expressions we practice engagement back 2,000 or 3,000 age ago . Many come from ancient Greece and Rome , civilizations that were prevailing and influential . Similarly , we take over a deal of phrasal idiom from the Bible , the world ’s well - selling and most widely distributed tome , grant to the Guinness Book of Records . Ancient fables also breed innumerable expressions that have endure through time , perhaps because they often let in a memorable fauna role who dispenses some bit of wisdom or hard-nosed advice [ root : Horgan ] .
The next 10 vernacular expressions all have intriguing back stories , start with the fib of an immortal gentleman with one mortal body part .
10: Achilles' Heel
When something is your " Achilles ' cad , " it ’s a fracture or helplessness you have , despite overall strength , that can potentially cause loser . The impuissance may be forcible : " He is a star quarterback , but his accidental injury - prone throwing arm is his Achilles ' bounder . “Or it might be emotional or mental : " She was a good author , but her Achilles ' heel was that she was a terrible speller . "
This grammatical construction comes from Greek mythology , specifically a guy cable identify Achilles . Achilles ' female parent dipped him in the river Styx as an infant , an act that bestowed upon him uttermost posture and immortality . He became a great maven — the best Greek fighter during the Trojan War — until the fateful Clarence Day when Trojan prince Paris took bearing and speared him in the cad with an pointer , cause him to shed blood to death . But was n’t he immortal ? Make that almost . When his mother dipped him in the river as a baby , she held him by one heel , which thus was n’t bathe in the river ’s magical waters and became the only part of his soundbox that was unprotected [ sources : Mythagora ] . Oops !
9: Crying Wolf
Today , we use the phrase to mean someone is plain when nothing ’s really improper . It ’s also used when a someone asks for help when he does n’t take it . For deterrent example : " The regulator says if our tax are n’t repeat , he ’ll have to conclude all of our schooltime . But he ’s just crying brute . "
So , who is this wolf we utter of ? It comes from an Aesop fable . Aesop was a former Grecian slave in the late to mid - sixth 100 B.C.E. when he allegedly pen ( or touch on ) 100 of ethics story , collectively have a go at it as known as " Aesop ’s Fables " [ source : Horgan ] .
One was about a young shepherd boy who was blase while tending the sheep all day . So to thrum up a little excitation and have some company , he run toward the village screaming , " Wolf ! Wolf ! " The villager ran out to satisfy him , and some stayed a while . Score ! The male child was so well-chosen that he iterate his illusion a few days after . Once again , the villagers work out to him , only to line up , once again , that there was no wolf . Then , disaster struck — a real wolf trotted out of the woodland and threatened the male child ’s flock . He cried , " Wolf ! Wolf ! " a third time , but no one course out . The villagers were tired of his tricks . The moral , says Aesop , is that " A prevaricator will not be believed , even when he speaks the trueness . "
8: All Roads Lead to Rome
In the ancient world , this was literally true . The Romans built some 50,000 miles ( 80,000 kilometers ) of road stretching from Britain , through Spain and Northern Africa , and E to the Danube River and Tigris - Euphrates River System . The first great road , the Appian Way , was built in 312 B.C.E. [ source : Encyclopaedia Brittanica ] . Emperor Caesar Augustus set up a monument called the Milliarium Aureum ( golden milepost ) in Rome ’s central forum , and the distances along all of those 50,000 miles were measured from this point , which was also the point at which all of the main romish road diverge [ seed : University of Notre Dame ] .
Nowadays , we use the expression to mean that there ’s more than one room to achieve an outcome . This metaphor was already in spot as early as the 1100s [ reservoir : American Heritage Dictionary ] .
7: Caught Between Scylla and Charybdis
You might remember this as a language from the ' eighty Police birdsong , " enclose Around Your Finger . " It intend being hitch between a rock and roll and a heavy place , or two equally unattractive choice .
In Grecian mythology , the heroOdysseuswas sailing home from the Trojan War through the Strait of Messina ( which separate Italy from Sicily ) where he was chivvy by two fiend on either side . Scylla was a giant with six headway , each having three rows of shark - comparable teeth , who devoured whatever do her mode . ( It was a personification of a reef . ) Charybdis was a whirlpool on the opposite shoring that lactate in ship that sail near her . stave off one conflict meant coming too stuffy to the other [ origin : Encyclopaedia Brittanica ] .
Odysseus had to count on out which was the lesser of the two evil as he had to pass through this strait to make home . He opt to sail nearer to Scylla since he risked losing only a few Man as controvert to losing the whole ship if he get going nearer to Charybdis .
6: Pandora’s Box
When someone talks about opening Pandora ’s corner , it ’s not a good thing . Pandora ’s box is a seed of hassle . For good example , if you start dating your gaffer , your friends might say you ’re opening a Pandora ’s box .
This expression comes from the story of Pandora , the first woman on earth according to Hellenic mythology . In the tale , Zeus , the Fatherhood of the gods , created Pandora as a punishment because his cousin Prometheus gave fire to piece against Zeus ' Holy Order . While the gods and goddesses gave Pandora positive gift , like beauty and charm , she was also given qualities that could be used for either practiced or evil , such as curiosity and suasion . Pandora was also presented with a jar that Zeus told her not to open up . But her curiosity get the best of her and she open up it , whereupon out fly all the bother of man – war , famine and so on . In some versions of the story , Pandora hastily tried to exit the jounce but the only thing she managed to keep was " hope . "
The tale of Pandora is anorigin myth , an attempt to excuse the start of something — in this case , why tough thing happen in the humans . Much like Eve ’s experience in the Garden of Eden , the world was a perfect spot before Pandora spread out her jar . Pandora ’s jounce became a box seat in the 16th 100 due to a translation mistake [ source : Myths and Legends ] .
5: Carpe Diem (Seize the Day)
Robin Williams is well - known for making this motivational Latin phrase the slogan for his English class in the 1989 flick " Dead Poets Society . " But that was certainly not the scratch line of its popularity . The phrase was penned by Quintus Horatius Flaccus , aka the lyric poet Horace , in the first century B.C.E. Horace wrote in his " Odes Book 1 " :
Dum loquimur , fugerit invida
Aetas : carpe diem , quam minimum credula postero
This imply , " While we ’re talking , envious time is fleeing ; pluck the day , put no trust in the future . " When you say the full sentence , the full meaning becomes vindicated . Make the most of today , because there ’s no warrant you ’ll be around tomorrow . And even if you are , who knows what tomorrow will hold ?
While this verbal expression has been uttered for millennium , it first squirm its style into the English language in the early nineteenth century , when the poet Lord Byron used it ( he was an admirer of Horace ) [ source : Martin ] . Many English proverbs , apropos , trounce us to be overbold with our clip , such as , " Strike while the iron is hot " and " The former bird catches the worm . "
4: The Writing is on the Wall
We can thank the scriptural Book of Daniel for this musical phrase , which mean doom or misfortune is about to come about . For example , if two people are discussing the layoffs occurring in their company and one enounce to the other , " The writing is on the paries for all of us , " she means their Job are likely to be eliminated , too .
In theBook of Daniel , chapter 5,King Belshazzar ofBabylonand his court are enjoying a decadent banquet , wassail wine from goblets taken from the sacred temple in Jerusalem . Suddenly , a disembodied paw seem and writes these Christian Bible on a sticking plaster bulwark : Mene , Mene , Tekel , Upharsin . Terrified , the king brings in the prophet Daniel to interpret what they mean . Daniel say him God is furious at Belshazzar for worshipping false idols rather than God . ( Literally , the words mean " identification number , " " press " and " divide " so the implication is that God has weighed or adjudicate Belshazzar and his days are list [ source : Wilson ] . ) As penalisation , his kingdom will be take aside from him and divided . That night the Billie Jean Moffitt King is murdered and his soil are taken over by an invading tribe .
3: Sour Grapes
When we use the phrase " sour grapevine , " we ’re indicate someone is disparaging something just because they ca n’t have it . For case : " It ’s just as well they did n’t have that apparel in my sizing . It ’s actually quite gaudy . "
This manifestation comes from the fable " The Fox and the Grapes , " attributed to our old friend Aesop . Many of his stories consist of animate being displaying anthropomorphic calibre . In this tale , a starving fox try several meter to get through a bunch of blue grapes dangling just out of reach but is unsuccessful . To assuage its disappointment , it order to itself , " I ’m sure they were rancid . " Although Aesop is present deferred payment for this tale , its first have it away English utilisation was n’t until 1760 [ source : Martin ] .
Interestingly , some bookman say a adept interlingual rendition of the allegory from Greek to English would result in the set phrase " unripe grapevine " [ rootage : Martin ] . But , " Those must be unripe grapes " just does n’t have the same gang to it .
2: Butter Someone Up
A common food - touch expression with links to the ancient past is " butter someone up . " It ’s used to mean excessively flattering someone , unremarkably so that they ’ll do something for you . For example , you say to your friend : " Cathy , that dress is beautiful and jibe you so well ! And your hair look lovely , too ! " Cathy might well reply , " Why are you buttering me up ? " Because you postulate a favor , naturally .
Many take this phrasal idiom has its ancestry in ancient India , when citizenry used to lob little balls of ghee butter at the statues of various gods when they were asking them for favour . In Tibet , there ’s an even older custom of crafting butter sculptures when the young year roll up around ; the carving were viewed as a means of bringing happiness and peace in the coming twelvemonth [ seed : Frederick ] .
However , some argue that the set phrase has nothing to do with the Amerindic tradition . or else , they say , it originated because of the imagery — spreading still butter on a piece of wampum is like spreading dainty words on someone . allow ’s go with the butter - orb theory . It ’s a lot more fun .
1: By the Skin of Your Teeth
This can be a scrap confusing . After all , no one has skin on their teeth . So what does it intend ? It means you break away or attain something — death , a sorry day of the month , a top level — by a very slender margin .
We have the Bible to thank for this phrase , and specifically the Book of Job . Job is a character who undergo numberless tragedies , and sighs , sound off and rails against God because of this , although he never loses his faith . In Job 19:20 , Job say , " I am nothing but tegument and bones ; I have escaped only by the peel of my teeth . " He ’s saying he ’s narrowly run away death — that he escaped dying by a margin so slender , it ’s as thin as the tegument on your teeth . No one has hide on their tooth ; that ’s the head , and it ’s why it indicates such a minute amount [ source : Addis ] .
Lots More Information
I always enjoy register these types of lists — the unity that explicate popular expression or expression — so it was a great deal of fun to research and write my own !
