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The term barnburner was derived from a folktale about a Dutch farmer who burned down his own barn in order to get rid of a rat infestation. [1] In this case it was applied to men who were thought to be willing to destroy all banks and corporations, in order to root out their abuses. [2]
Blow the man down, bullies, blow the man down; Blow the man down, bullies, pull him around. Blow the man down, you darlings, lie down, Blow the man down for fair London town. When the Black Baller is ready for sea, That is the time that you see such a spree. There's tinkers, and tailors, and soldiers, and all,
Jack Robinson is a name present in two common figures of speech. When referring to Jack Robinson, it is used to represent quickness. In contrast, the phrase "(A)round Jack Robinson's barn" has the opposite connotation, implying slowness, as it is often used to refer to circumlocution, circumvention, or doing things in roundabout or unnecessarily complicated ways.
The Online Etymology Dictionary or Etymonline, sometimes abbreviated as OED (not to be confused with the Oxford English Dictionary, which the site often cites), is a free online dictionary that describes the origins of English words, written and compiled by Douglas R. Harper. [1]
The phrase could also come from the idea of race horses "breaking their legs" (AKA how they're standing) at the starting line, which some riders believed was good luck and would lead to a good race.
The phrase "down bad" has taken on a life of its own on social media. People seem to be using it in a myriad of ways, but the spirit of the term is to yearn. Urban Dictionary defines "down bad" as ...
Etymology (/ ˌ ɛ t ɪ ˈ m ɒ l ə dʒ i /, ET-im-OL-ə-jee [1]) is the study of the origin and evolution of words—including their constituent units of sound and meaning—across time. [2] In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics , etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. [ 1 ]
An idiom is a common word or phrase with a figurative, non-literal meaning that is understood culturally and differs from what its composite words' denotations would suggest; i.e. the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words (although some idioms do retain their literal meanings – see the example "kick the bucket" below).