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...

Cut the Painter “I’ll cut your painter for you; that is, cut you off.” —GROSE: Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1785) Nautical usage is responsible for this phrase, the metaphorical meaning of which is: to cut oneself, or be cut, away from an embarrassing attachment ; to be released from an undesirable alliance. A sailor fastens his boat by a rope fixed to the bow, which he calls a “painter.” At...

Tweedledum And Tweedledee “If there is any difference between them, it is the difference between Tweedledum and Tweedledee”: which means no perceptible difference at all or so trifling as to be worthless. “Tweedledum” and “Tweedledee” are words which, at one time, were used to indicate the difference in pound between a high-pitched musical instrument and a low-pitched one. Hence to tweedle is to strum the strings of a fiddle, or to...

Grasp the Nettle   Tenderhearted stroke a nettle And it stings you for your plans; Grasp it like a man of mettle, And it soft as silk remains. —Verse written on a window in Scotland. The idiomatic meaning of the phrase “to grasp the nettle” is to act in given circumstances with courageous determination. This caption, from an old German proverb, “Though you stroke the nettle ever so kindly, it will...

The Dogs of War The origin of this phrase is found in Shakespeare’s Julius Cesar, III, i, where Mark Antony mourns over the corpse of his friend, and cries: “And Cesar’s spirit, ranging for revenge, with Ate by his side come hot from Hell, shall in these confines, with a monarch’s voice, cry ‘Havoc l’ and let slip the dogs of war.” What are these dogs of war? What is this...

A Feather in His Cap “He wore a feather in his cap, and wagged it too often.” FULLER: Church History (1655). “That’s a feather in your cap!” we are ant to say to anyone who has accomplished any great feat—or physical endurance, like swimming the Channel, scaling the Himalayas, or flying across continents; of mental prowess, like gaining a scholar-ship, composing an epic poem, or painting a sunset. When Joseph Chamberlain...