Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
A proverbial phrase or expression is a type of conventional saying similar to a proverb and transmitted by oral tradition. The difference is that a proverb is a fixed expression, while a proverbial phrase permits alterations to fit the grammar of the context. [1] [2] In 1768, John Ray defined a proverbial phrase as:
The Latin phrase quid pro quo originally implied that something had been substituted, meaning "something for something" as in I gave you sugar for salt.Early usage by English speakers followed the original Latin meaning, with occurrences in the 1530s where the term referred to substituting one medicine for another, whether unintentionally or fraudulently.
Usually refers to comically unconventional writing, but is also often used in the same context of unintelligible words or text. Low Saxon: Dat kümmt mi spaansch vör. [citation needed] [dat kymt miː spoːnʃ føɐ] That seems like Spanish to me. Spanish Norwegian: Det er helt gresk for meg. [citation needed] It's complete Greek to me: Greek ...
A famous line of the scene, "'Tis but a scratch", is similar to a line the character Mercutio speaks in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, wherein he demurs, saying "Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch", referring to his mortal wound, and the former has since become an expression used to comment on someone who ignores a fatal flaw or problem.
"Cutting off one's nose to spite one's face" is an expression used to describe a needlessly self-destructive overreaction to a problem: "Don't cut off your nose to spite your face" is a warning against acting out of pique, or against pursuing revenge in a way that would damage oneself more than the object of one's anger.
I want them soft, creamy, not at all dry, and quite possibly a bit less "done" than some people like them. My go-to method for years has been (for two of us): five large eggs, one large yolk, salt ...
This is a list of catchphrases found in American and British english language television and film, where a catchphrase is a short phrase or expression that has gained usage beyond its initial scope. These are not merely catchy sayings.
Prior to Cicero, Sallust used the phrase in Bellum Catilinae, 54, 6, writing that Cato esse quam videri bonus malebat ("preferred to be good, rather than to seem so"). Earlier still, Aeschylus used a similar phrase in Seven Against Thebes, line 592: ou gar dokein aristos, all' enai thelei ("he wishes not to seem the best, but to be the best ...