When an Ohio adult female ’s walletwas steal in 2006 , she did n’t think she would see her miss driver ’s license again .
Two weeks later on as the woman was tending bar , she asked a female customer for her I.D. — and was present her own stolen license . The thief was , as they say , " entrance red - handed , " in a moment that police later said had betting odds that " defy reckoning . "
happenstance by , there are batch of example of people being caught red - handed in veridical living and in fiction . But where does the phrase caught red - handed come from ? Turns out , its roots are steeped in both blood and history .
Ye Olde Origins of ‘Red-handed’
The first enjoyment of the phrase " ruddy - handed " originated in 15th - century Scotland and , at the time , bring up to someone literally having roue on their hand after committing a crime .
In 1432 , a record of " The Scotch bit of Parliament of James 1 " include a character reference to someone have a " cherry-red hand " as a consequence of their wrongdoing — in this case , most probably poach an fauna from forbidden hunt curtilage :
While these superannuated spellings may take some endeavor to wade through , this early grounds of using " reid hand " became part - and - parcel of Scotland ’s legal legal proceeding . In time , referring to someone being " red hand " was adequate to saying that someone wascaught in the act of committing a crime , including variations on the phrase such as " apprehended redhand " or " taken with redhand . "
Historians conceive the phrase germinate from " red manus " to " red - handed " as it was bandied about in conversational conversation of the era , so much so that the term was finally immortalized in the literary canon .
In 1820,Sir Walter Scott’s"Ivanhoe " the set phrase appears thusly :
An Idiom for the Ages
The phrase " caught red - handed " would actually make very little sense if it were break into its individual words . This is because " caught red - handed " is anidiom , a set phrase that — when take away as a whole — is , to strike another phrase , more than the center of its part .
Idioms are , at their nub , shortcuts . An idiom constitute a big meaning that most masses ( usually ) realise . For exercise , a mere phrase like " confining , but no cigar " can be an efficient substitution for what would otherwise be a drawn-out explanation . In short , idioms make it well-fixed to explain a more complicated concept .
Take the followingidioms , for example :
The Evolution of ‘Caught Red-handed’
Just like idiomatic expression today — such as " go viral " — sink in layer of society , so too did " cherry - hand . " The idiom spread throughout the English - speaking human race in the 1800s , where it picked up its modern mutation : caught red - handed .
One of the early record of the still - in - circulation idiomatic expression " caught red - handed " appeared in the 1857 novel " Guy Livingstone " by George Alfred Lawrence :
Today , accord to theCambridge Dictionary , being catch " red - handed " means to " discover someone while they are doing something tough or illegal . " And , just as it did in Ye Olde Scotland , the phrase also has fall to intend get someone in the operation — even conduce up to doing the bad or illegal thing — not just the bad or illegal thing itself .
