Keep the Wolf from the Door This phrase indicates mankind’s heartfelt wish that the specter of hunger and the haunting fear of the consequences of debt must be banished from the very threshold of their lives. One of the earliest poetical references is in Harding’s Chronicle (1470): Endow hym now with noble sapience, By which he may the wolf were (that is, beat or drive away) from the gate. In the...

Neither Fish, Flesh, Fowl nor Good Red Herring “She is neither fish nor flesh nor good red herring.” —JOHN HEYWOOD: Proverbs (1540). The phrase may have been amended: the words “nor good red herring” being tacked on by someone who wished facetiously to emphasize it ; just as the word “fowl” has been added in our day. Its meaning is to describe certain types of men who pride themselves on their...

The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions “Hell is paved with the skulls of priests.” -ST. CHRYSOST This Greek proverb may be the origin of our phrase, for it well illustrates its meaning, namely that there are people in every age who, though they always mean well—whose motives, indeed, are always of the best—seem congenitally incapable of doing the right thing. If all the wrongdoers in all the ages...

A Gerrymandered Job The noun “job” originally meant a patched piece of work, a temporary repair. In civic affairs it has come to mean an undertaking ostensibly in the public interest but really for one’s own prom. This detestable conduct is called “job-berry,” A “gerrymandered” and a “jerrybuilder” are closely-related tunes. Both are dangerous to social well-being, for they always act selfishly, even recklessly. Since time began, there have been building-contractors...

Play Havoc  “That bold and skeptical spirit which cried havoc to the prejudices and superstitions of men.” –Buckle: Hitt of Civilization. Our modern use of the word “havoc” is in the phrase “play havoc,” or “make havoc,” by which we mean that one is engaged in ruthless destruction of a thing, generally in a figurative sense, as an iconoclast will destroy all sorts of religious beliefs and political systems. The word...

A Skeleton in The Cupboard “There is a skeleton in every home.” -WILLIAM MAKEPEACE TRACEERAY (1845). There are certain secrets which, though they are a source of constant anxiety to their keepers, are so intimate that they must never be disclosed. Such secrets are known as “skeletons in the cupboard.” A skeleton is a gruesome thing and is an object of the greatest fear to most mortals. A doctor, being constantly...

Who Sups With The Devil Must Have A Long Spoon Therefor behoveth him a ful long spone That schal ete with a fend. -CHAUCER : Canterbury Tales (“The Squire’s Tale”) (1388). Joseph Chamberlain may have been the first to use the phrase in this form, when referring to Czarist Russia (see page 10). Its meaning is that it is vitally necessary, when one has dealings with evilly-disposed persons, to be wide...

A Sisyphean Task With many a weary step and many a groan, Up the high hill he heaves a huge round stone; The huge round, stone returning with a bound, Thunders impetuous down, and smokes along the ground. -HOMER: Odyssey (Pope’s translation). The phrase “a Sisyphean task” is generally intended to signify an almost fruitless effort, to make which requires an almost superhuman ordeal. Sydney Smith once said of a man...