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The phrase is most commonly used in association with organized competitions, particularly sports. The proverb is used in baseball circles, such as "the Texas Rangers didn't hear a fat lady sing" [ 1 ] when the Rangers went down 2-3 in a seven game series against the Houston Astros .
An exact phrase exists in Spanish, Cuando los chanchos vuelen, literally meaning "when pigs fly". An identical phrase, used to express impossibilities, exists in Romanian , Când o zbura porcul , literally meaning "When the pig shall fly"; an equivalent also implying an animal is La Paștele cailor , literally: "on horses' Easter".
Mark Twain uses the phrase in some of his writing. The main character in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) repeatedly utters "great Scott" as an oath. Twain's disdain for Scott may be evident in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), where he names a sinking boat the Walter Scott .
The phrase "Holy cow!" was used by baseball players at least as early as 1913 [6] and probably much earlier. [1] It became associated with several American baseball broadcasters. The phrase may have originated with reporter and broadcaster Halsey Hall who worked in Minneapolis, Minnesota from 1919 until his death in 1977. [7]
Two 1965 newspaper articles quote U.S. military personnel serving in Vietnam using the phrase. [23] The phrase was explained as something "teenagers say" in a military-oriented magazine in 1965. [24] Citations from 1966 show the phrase was used by a former U.S. Army airman, [25] and also in a publication for military test pilots. [26]
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:
When we say "break a leg," we don't actually want people to break their legs. So, why do we say this interesting phrase in the first place? The post Where Did the Phrase “Break a Leg” Come ...
Ritz's le client n'a jamais tort was first recorded in 1908, and is sometimes cited as the origin of the term. [ 3 ] [ 9 ] Barry Pain used both terms in his 1917 Confessions of Alphonse , writing "The great success of a restaurant is built up on this principle— le patron n’a jamais tort —the customer is always in the right!".