what are the origins of idioms?
139302
It depends on the idiom. There are lots of different origins. Just pick an idiom at look up its origin at:\n\nhttp://www.idiomsite.com/
870534
What are the phrases?
564942
a. simile\nb. pun\nc. allusion
121210
Hi there, \n\nIdiom means the language peculiar to a people or to a district, community, or class (dialect)\nExample: Back seat driver\nThis idiom comes from the habit many people have of giving too much advice (unwanted advice) to the driver of an automobile from the backseat. this idiom means 'someone who watches and criticizes'\n\n\nA phrase means  characteristic manner or style of expression (diction)\nExample: Dead ringer \nMeaning: To look like someone else. \nUsage: She told me I was dead ringer for Dilbert.  Is that good? \n\n\nHope this clarifies the ambiguity. If not, I'd be glad to assist you further. Bye!!\n\nrule wid style n luv@vinny
821774
Idioms, Quotes and Sayings.\n\nhttp://www.didyouknow.org/quotes/quotes.htm\n\nhttp://www.angelfire.com/wi3/englishcorner/idioms/idioms.html\n\nhttp://www.eslcafe.com/idioms/id-mngs.html\n\nhttp://www.idiomsite.com/#l\n\nhttp://www.wisdomquotes.com/\n\nhttp://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/\n\nhttp://www.idiomconnection.com/\n\nhttp://a4esl.org/q/h/idioms.html\n\nCat Sayings & Proverbs Part I \n\nhttp://www.moggies.co.uk/sayings.html\n\nGOOD SITES WITH ORIGINS.\n\nhttp://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/\n\nhttp://eleaston.com/ety-site.html#ety\n\nhttp://www.wordorigins.org/\n\nhttp://www.bartleby.com/100/\n\nhttp://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/ \n\nhttp://www.wordwizard.com/\n\nhttp://www.quotationsbook.com/ \n\nhttp://www.litquotes.com/\n\nhttp://www.giga-usa.com/\n\nhttp://www.boardofwisdom.com/\n\nhttp://www.quoteworld.org/ \n\nhttp://www.rockwisdom.com/\n\nhttp://www.great-quotes.com/\n\nhttp://quotations.home.worldnet.att.net/\n\nhttp://www.quotationspage.com/\n\nhttp://www.online-literature.com/quotes/quotations.php\n\nAllGreatQuotes - Famous Quotes and Quotations\n\nWelcome to Allgreatquotes.com! Probably the best free quotations site in the world. Thousands of great quotes carefully researched, collected and verified for your pleasure. Regularly updated and new content added. Visit often and bookmark us.\n\nhttp://www.allgreatquotes.com/index.shtml\n\nGood luck.\n\nKevin, Liverpool, England.
225140
I don't know if there's much etymology of the phrase, but here's an article about it which puts forth some interesting possibilities of the origin.\n\nQuote from the site:\n\n"Some linguists and historians think the expression must have been well known during the war years, citing a story about General Eisenhower's dog. The story goes that the dog (Felix) urinated on a map and the officers joked that the enemy was "pissed off." (Leonard Mosely, Marshall, 1982)."
457033
Speculation about its origin is found in Eric Partridge's "Dictionary of Catch Phrases":\n\n"'Come up and see my etchings' was, perhaps, orig. a US students' catchphrase that rapidly gained a much wider currency: throughout the US, thence in Can. and UK and, prob. indicative of US influence in 1943-5, Aus. Formerly I suspected that it was prompted by [Mae West's] 'come up and see me sometime!'; yet it could well have been the other way about. In his letter . . . Prof. S. H. Monk writes: "I am certain that I knew this sentence by the midtwenties. Actually I knew no one who had a collection of etchings or who was suave enough to seduce a young thing in this manner. But the phrase certainly floated in and out of cartoons and jokes. To me, it has an 1890-ish or Edwardian tone, and I suspect that it existed in 'sophisticated' urban society before it ever reached me. I think that this can still sometimes be heard, but it is definitely 'corny'."\nPerhaps confirmatory of Prof. Monk's shrewd remarks is the fact that in Susannah Centlivre's comedy, 'The Man's Bewitched' (1710), Act III, where Belinda, Maria, Constant and Lovely are in the study, and Lovely exclaims, 'Interrogating! Nay, then 'tis proper to be alone; there is a very pretty Collection of Prints in the next Room, Madam, will you give me leave to explain them to you?' Maria answers, 'Any Thing that may divert your Love--Subject.'\nIt should, however, be noted that this catchphrase perhaps derives from Surreyside melodrama--the villain enticing the innocent maiden."
133376
Actually, you come very close!  I suggest an excellent book, "Idioms of the Bible", the author's name is beyond me for now.  It was created by  a Bible scholar who is very familiar with both modern and ancient Hebrew and Aramaic, and has done some wonderful research in various areas relating to the Bible and religion.
741452
Idioms, Quotes and Sayings.\n\nGOOD SITES WITH ORIGINS.\n\nhttp://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/\n\nhttp://eleaston.com/ety-site.html#ety\n\nhttp://www.wordorigins.org/\n\nhttp://www.bartleby.com/100/\n\nhttp://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/ \n\nhttp://www.wordwizard.com/\n\nhttp://www.quotationsbook.com/ \n\nhttp://www.litquotes.com/\n\nhttp://www.giga-usa.com/\n\nhttp://www.boardofwisdom.com/\n\nhttp://www.quoteworld.org/ \n\nhttp://www.rockwisdom.com/\n\nhttp://www.great-quotes.com/\n\nhttp://quotations.home.worldnet.att.net/\n\nhttp://www.quotationspage.com/\n\nhttp://www.online-literature.com/quotes/quotations.php\n\nAllGreatQuotes - Famous Quotes and Quotations\n\nWelcome to Allgreatquotes.com! Probably the best free quotations site in the world. Thousands of great quotes carefully researched, collected and verified for your pleasure. Regularly updated and new content added. Visit often and bookmark us.\n\nhttp://www.allgreatquotes.com/index.shtml\n\nGood luck.\n\nKevin, Liverpool, England.
596305
I means that something derives or comes from something else.i.e. some English words are a derivative of Latin ones, therefore they come from certain Latin words.
730419
Probably 2.\n\nMIND YOUR PS AND QS\n\nA puzzling and quirky idiom\n\nThere has recently been a discussion on the Usenet newsgroup alt.usage.english about this somewhat outdated saying. As so often happens, a series of posters have recounted the explanations they’ve heard about its origins without really advancing the discussion. It would be difficult to reach a conclusion in any case, as the facts to base it on have been lost. All we can do is theorise, which can be fun, but it does tend to generate more heat than light. Here, for what its worth, are the facts so far as I know them.\n\nIts meaning in recent times—and the one I learned as a child in west London nearly 50 years ago—has been “to mind one’s manners”, “to behave properly”. This is a weakened sense to the one it had in the nineteenth century, when it meant, according to Eric Partridge in A Dictionary of Historical Slang: “to be careful, exact, or prudent in behaviour”.\n\nThese are some of the explanations I’ve seen advanced in various places:\n\n    * Advice to a child learning its letters to be careful not to mix up the handwritten lower-case letters p and q.\n    * Similar advice to a printer’s apprentice, for whom the backward-facing metal type letters would be especially confusing.\n    * Jocular, or perhaps deadly serious, advice to a barman not to confuse the letters p and q on the tally slate, on which the letters stood for the pints and quarts consumed “on tick” by the patrons.\n    * An abbreviation of mind your please’s and thank-you’s.\n    * Instructions from a French dancing master to be sure to perform the dance figures pieds and queues accurately.\n    * An admonishment to seamen not to soil their navy pea-jackets with their tarred queues, that is, their pigtails.\n\nIt is possible to put forward objections to all of these. Why should p and q be singled out for attention in handwriting, when similar problems occur with b and d? This comment might be thought to apply with even greater force to the poor printer’s apprentice. The pints and quarts explanation sounds reasonable, provided that men in bars used to drink beer by the quart, as in fact they did. The French dancing-master explanation sounds just too far-fetched to be credible, as does the one about the seamen. The mind your please’s and thank-you’s seems just as unlikely as the others, but is seriously advanced by some dictionaries, the current edition of the Collins English Dictionary among them.\n\nThere are two similar usages recorded:\n\n    * There was once an expression P and Q, often written pee and kew, which was a seventeenth-century colloquial expression for “prime quality”. This later became a dialect expression (the English Dialect Dictionary reports it in Victorian times from Shropshire and Herefordshire). OED2 has a citation from Rowlands’ Knave of Harts of 1612:\n    * “Bring in a quart of Maligo, right true: And looke, you Rogue, that it be Pee and Kew.” Nobody is really sure what either P or Q stood for. To say they’re the initials of “Prime Quality” seems to be folk etymology, because surely that would make “PQ” rather than “P and Q”. Partridge says that the phrase learn your Ps and Qs, was common about 1820, again being advice to children who may be confused about the two letters.\n\nYou may feel the first of these tends to confuse the issue rather than illuminate it, and you may be right. It may just be coincidence. However, the second does tend to support the idea that it relates to children learning their alphabets. If I had to make a choice, I’d plump for the alphabet-learning origin.\n\nWhat we do know is that mind your Ps and Qs was first recorded in 1779 but that it is slowly dying out. To lose it would be a pity, as it is a link to the past and makes a good subject for some quiet speculation and ingenious attempts at explanation. In common with so many words and phrases in English, its origins must remain
114041
"Illogical" is a form of the word "logic" -- which was derived from the Greek word "logos," which originally meant "the word" or "what was spoken."\n\nIt is not derived from a Latin word.
441123
Duh! got its start as a derogatory imitation of the sounds made by severely mentally handicapped people[citation needed]. Eventually, it worked its way into sarcastic usage.
485265
God invented it with logical expression: IF you obey, THEN I will be your God and you will be My people, ELSE I will bring fire and brimstone.\n\nJohnny
785422
It's probably from Aesop's Fables. That's where most quotes like that come from.
1024750
try this etymology site:
833115
Here's a website on word origins that has a few suggestions:\n\nhttp://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/5/messages/97.html