Have you ever wondered about the origins of idioms that we frequently use? As a lover of history, my first realization of the historical origins of idioms happened when I was visiting the childhood cottage of Anne Hathaway, the wife of William Shakespeare, in the village of Shottery, Warwickshire, England.

Upon entering the cottage, the tour guide pointed out that we had to step over the raised area at the bottom of the door. She told us that the leftover stems from the wheat after the wheat was “threshed” were used to cover the floors.

The area below the bottom of the door was intentionally raised to “hold” the thresh in, and became known as the “threshold.”  Hence the saying, “Carry the bride over the threshold.”

Let’s look at a few more historical sayings.

“Bite the bullet”

Prior to anesthesia, patients (usually soldiers) undergoing a painful medical procedure were given a literal bullet, and told to bite down on it in order to distract them from the pain.

“Waking up on the wrong

side of the bed”

Originating from a Roman superstition, the saying is connected to the idea that the right side of the bed has positive energy and the left side has bad energy.

“Bury the hatchet”

This saying originated with Native American tribes. When two tribes decided to settle their differences, the chief of each tribe buried a war hatchet in the ground to signify their agreement. 

“Freelance”

In the Middle Ages, free lances were soldiers who fought for anyone who would hire them. They were literally “free lances”.

“Let the cat out of the bag”

Long ago, when people sold piglets in bags, they sometimes put a cat in the bag instead.  If you let the cat out of the bag you exposed the trick.

“A long shot”

In the past guns were only accurate at short range. So a shot fired over a long distance only had a small chance of hitting its target.

“Wear your heart on your sleeve”

In the Middle Ages, knights who fought at tournaments wore a token of their lady on their sleeves. Today, if you make your feelings obvious to everybody, you “wear your heart on your sleeve.”

You can further explore the origins of idioms by checking out from the library “Take my word for it: a dictionary of English idioms” by Anatoly Liberman.