What is the origin of the statement "short end of the stick"?
153786
Originated when drawing straws to determine a loser from a group was created. 'The short end of the stick' refers to the losing draw when drawing straws.\nIt means you lost out over everyone else.
80040
Poor Mexico - so close to the United States, so far from God,’ runs a popular Mexican saying. This leads me to believe it is a 'public domain' quote, the origin unknown, or unremembered
157240
I used to be a server and we used to say that all the time but I had no idea where it came from.  So...  I tried to find some info and this is a website I found.  I hope it answers your questions.  I found it interesting.  \n\nhttp://www.dinermuseum.org/culture/culture-slang.php
78240
Subject:         HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE FINGER\n\nWell, now......here's something I never knew before,\nand now that I know it, I feel compelled to send it\non to my more intelligent friends in the hope that\nthey, too, will feel edified.\nIsn't history more fun when you know something about it?\n                                         \n \n                   Giving the Finger\n\nBefore the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French,\nanticipating victory over the English, proposed to\ncut off the middle finger of all captured English\nsoldiers.  Without the middle finger it would be\nimpossible to draw the renowned English longbow\nand therefore they would be incapable of fighting\nin the future.\nThis famous weapon was made of the native English\nYew tree, and the act of drawing the longbow was\nknown as "plucking the yew" (or "pluck yew").\nMuch to the bewilderment of the French, the English\nwon a major upset and began mocking the French by\nwaving their middle fingers at the defeated\nFrench, saying, "See, we can still pluck yew!\n"PLUCK YEW!"\nSince 'pluck yew' is rather difficult to say, the\ndifficult consonant cluster at the beginning has\ngradually changed to a labiodental fricative 'F',\nand thus the words often used in conjunction\nwith the one-finger-salute!\nIt is also because of the pheasant feathers on the\narrows used with the longbow that the symbolic\ngesture is known as "giving the bird."\nAnd yew thought yew knew everything
381841
acutally its "ends justify the means". It means that whatever your goal is "end" it is so important that what you do to achieve it, no matter if it's wrong, is justified by your ritious goal. The "means" is how you get there, what you do. I want to be president to help the world, but I have to lie like a polititian to get there.
167792
Question has very little info. Give the context/ sentence/ paper/ text, where it was used.
809846
Blast from the past- it means up to mischief or " no good"  I do not know where it came from but it has been around since at least the 30-40's  \n\nI just googled shenanigans and it is from the 1920's and there actually was a play named that.  Try Wikipedia- but I am right about the meaning.
344280
This is a pun:  (enjoy)\n\nBack during the days of expansion to the west, people traveled by stagecoach. This was not a particularly comfortable way to go, with the bumpy paths and crowded seats. However, there wasn't much choice.\n             Being in business to make money, the operators of these stage- coaches tried to think of various ways to increase revenue on each trip. People were willing to pay not only to ride out west, but they were willing to pay to ship things to friends and relatives who had already relocated.\n             Of course, passengers were the most lucrative. So it follows that the more people you could transport on each trip, the more money the company made.\n             With that in mind, these companies began restricting passengers to being under a certain weight, in order to fit three people in a seat instead of only two.\n             Not only was this extremely uncomfortable for the travelers, but it became obvious to those wishing to relocate that there would be no  \nwest for the reary.
821676
There are several theories for the expression's origins. All are heavily debated. Like many expressions it is almost impossible to fully trace its origins unless there are some sort of identifying markers found in derived Latin expressions. The below are some of the most popular origins for the expression, but cannot be conclusively proven.\n\nTraditional Theory\n\nIn the U.K., the most common idea of origin for the expression comes from tradition. Historians know from the time of King James I and Shakespeare's King's Men that actors would on occasion receive tips on top of their salaries. Rather than receiving tips directly from the company or theatre, tipping was left to the audience. During the final bows or curtain call, audiences would throw money, usually coins, onto the stage depending on how well they enjoyed the performance. In some bad performances they would throw rotten vegetables, but in the good cases, money. Actors would then 'take a knee', effectively breaking their leg line, on stage and pick up the money. As a result when you wishs someone to 'break a leg' it refers to wishing them success in their performance so in end they would have to kneel down and collect a welcoming tip. Theatre evolved and the tradition of tipping changed. This tradition led to the tradition of throwing flowers on stage, as well as presenting flowers. The expression continued through theatre as it was still applicable and later became tradition.\n\nAntonym Theory\n\nBreaking one's leg is not a good thing to hope for - therefore by some superstition, if "good luck" causes bad luck, then the perceived bad luck of breaking one's leg causes good.\n\nBowing\n\nThis theory is thought to be an extension of the Traditional Theory. For the curtain call, when actors bow or curtsy, they place one foot behind the other and bend at the knee, 'breaking' the line of the leg. In theatre, pleased audiences may applaud in which time encore bows sometimes occur. On Broadway this is considered the highest compliment to an actor. In wishing someone to 'break a leg' you are ultimately wishing them to bow many times effectively causing them to 'break a leg'. A continuation of this theory is joke where you wish someone to bow too many times that they 'break a leg'.\n\nGreek Origin\n\nIn the time of Ancient Greece, people didn’t applaud. Instead, they stomped for their appreciation and if they stomped long enough, they would break a leg. Or, some would have it that the term originated during Elizabethan times when, instead of applause the audience would stomp their chairs – and if they liked it enough, the leg of the chair would break. [1]\n\n\nLincoln Theory\n\nPopular etymology derives the phrase from the 1865 assassination of Abraham Lincoln. John Wilkes Booth, the actor turned assassin, leapt to the stage of Ford's Theatre after the murder, breaking his leg in the process. The logical connection with good luck is none too clear, but such is folklore.
817315
It's a slang expression, mostly used by african- americans, and is short for "sure enough." It's just another way of saying "it sure is."
345500
Comes from the Latin "Aequanimitas"= "equanimity" (or according to merriam webster "evenness of mind under stress," with a secondary connotation of "balanced.")  Comes from the earlier Latin phrase "aequo animo" which means "even mind."\n\n\nThe "-ta" ending plus "te" ending adds the command "you be" to the root noun.  \n\nIn short, it's pronounced "e-qua-ni-mi-TA-te" and the whole means something like "Be even-minded."
778170
I'm not entirely sure, but I think it originated with the Rolling Stones as they described their backstage parties for an interview of somesort. The saying has pretty much been adopted by every rock group and wannabe rocker eversince as a way of answering why they're in the music buisness.
814904
Good question! I didnt know the answer so I looked on the internet and found this:\n\nThe best evidence obtainable at present points to Manute Bol, the 7'7" Sudanese NBA player whose native tongue was Dinka, as the inventor, sometime in the 1980s, of this now–ubiquitous phrase.\n\nGeoffrey K. Pullum told the story in his December 7, 2005 blog post:\n\nHere is the relevant portion: \nKen Arneson emailed me to say that he heard the phrase was first used by the Sudanese immigrant basketball player Manute Bol, believed to have been a native speaker of Dinka (a very interesting and thoroughly un-Indo-Europeanlike language of the Nilo-Saharan superfamily). \n\nSays Arneson, "I first heard the phrase here in the Bay Area when Bol joined the Golden State Warriors in 1988, when several Warriors players started using the phrase." \n\nAnd Ben Zimmer's rummaging in the newspaper files down in the basement of Language Log Plaza produced a couple of early 1989 quotes that confirm this convincingly:\n\nSt. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jan. 10, 1989: When he [Manute Bol] throws a bad pass, he'll say, "My bad" instead of "My fault," and now all the other players say the same thing.\n\nUSA Today, Jan. 27, 1989: After making a bad pass, instead of saying "my fault," Manute Bol says, "my bad." Now all the other Warriors say it too.\n\nSo all of this is compatible with a date of origin for the phrase in the early 1980s (Manute Bol first joined the NBA in 1985 but came to the USA before that, around 1980). \n\nProfessor Ron McClamrock of the Philosophy Department at SUNY Albany tells me he recalls very definitely hearing the phrase on the basketball court when he was in graduate school at MIT in the early 1980s, so the news stories above could be picking the story up rather late; but it is still just possible that Manute Bol was the originator, because he played for Cleveland State and Bridgeport University in the early 1980s, and his neologism just could have spread from there to other schools in the northeast, such as MIT.
966518
I could find no real origin in any of my reference books, other than suggesting the analogy with firing a gun. However, one day, I was sent the following which appeared in the Clevedon, Somerset, Civic Society Newsletter for Summer 1996:\n"We discovered recently that the word 'fired', meaning discharged from a job originated on Mendip. It comes from Item 6 of the Laws of Mendip Miners. \n"If any man... do pick or steale any lead or ore to the value of xiiid (=13 pence), the Lord or his Officer may arrest all his lead and Oare House or hearthes with his Grooves and Workes and keep them in forfeit... and shall take the person that hath soe affeended and bring him where his house or worke and all his tooles and instruments are... and put him into his house or worke and set fire in all together about him and banish him..." Fired indeed!
112033
Don't know who said it recently but it's a quote from Shakespeare\n\n"Cry HAVOC' and let slip the dogs of war!" - William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act III
935484
Interesting. Where did you find the quote?
737181
It sounds like a line from the old "Star Trek," when someone was insulting Mr. Spock.\n\nHis answer would probably have been something like, "If you are expecting an answer, your question is illogical. If your question is rhetorical I expect you are trying to insult me which is impossible since I'm incapable of feeling emotion and therefore - feeling insulted."