Where  does the saying 'once in a blue moon" originate?
395732
ok here below is the meaning and just in case u want to know anymore sayings there is a site included that has a whole crap load full!!!!\n\nIt originated from:\n\nOnce in a Blue Moon ... is a common way of saying not very often, but what exactly is a Blue Moon? \nAccording to the popular definition, it is the second Full Moon to occur in a single calendar month. \n\nThe average interval between Full Moons is about 29.5 days, whilst the length of an average month is roughly 30.5 days. This makes it very unlikely that any given month will contain two Full Moons, though it does sometimes happen. \n\nOn average, there will be 41 months that have two Full Moons in every century, so you could say that once in a Blue Moon actually means once every two-and-a-half years. \n\nthe second site is MORE info on once in a blue moon!!
179633
A blue moon is the second full moon in a calendar month. (The origins of the term go back to something about blue being unusual or magical.) This happens once about every 2 1/2 years.
482411
[Q] “All my life I have heard the phrase a pig in a poke. Do you know where this phrase originated?”\n[A] Though the current version in full is “Don’t buy a pig in a poke”, don’t buy or accept something without first checking or assessing it, it’s first recorded in London around 1530 in a form intended to be good advice to honourable traders: “When ye proffer the pigge open the poke”, but its best known early appearance is in John Heywood’s A dialogue conteinyng the nomber in effect of all the proverbes in the Englishe tongue of 1546 (a title usually and with good reason abbreviated to Proverbs), where it appears in the form “Though he love not to buy the pig in the poke”. About 1555, Heywood included it in his other famous compilation work, Epigrammes, in the almost modern form “I will never bye the pig in the poke”.\nMany Americans know a poke as a small bag or sack, which it was also in Heywood’s day (a usage that has survived in Scotland). A poke, for example, was a suitable container into which to stuff a piglet for sale in the local market.\nThe proverb encapsulates that wise advice to purchasers of goods, caveat emptor, let the buyer beware—always inspect the goods before you pay for them. Make the seller open his poke and show you the pig within.\nIncidentally, the proverb has its direct counterparts in other languages, as in the Swedish Köp inte grisen i säcken! However, in other languages it refers to cats, as in French: Acheter chat en poche (“To buy a cat in a pouch”), and German: Die Katze im Sack kaufen (“To buy a cat in a sack”). Why the expressions in these languages refer to cats and not pigs supports a link with another expression, to let the cat out of the bag.
830139
Original quote was by Dr. William W. Purkey, an internationally recognized leader in the theory and practice of making schools and classrooms inviting places to learn, and the co-founder of the International Alliance for Invitational Education, an organization of more than 1200 individuals who believe that schools should be engaging places where students enjoy learning.\n\nIt was made popular in the song "Come From The Heart" written by Susannah Clark and Richard Leigh.
601030
I WAS TOLD A FEW YEARS AGO THAT THE WORD "BIPPY" COMES FROM LONDON, ENGLAND WHICH MEANS A CUP OF TEA OR A SPOT OF TEA.\nCHECK REFERENCES OR SLANG WORDS.COM
141560
Nobody actually knows where that phrase comes from.  There is an urban legend about where it came from that can be found here: http://www.snopes.com/language/stories/brass.htm
118840
1. From an unexpected or unforeseen source.\n2. At a completely unexpected time\n\nI've also heard it as "Out of the clear blue sky"
1140614
As others mentioned, Neil Armstrong's first words on the Moon were, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."\n\nIf you read that closely, the phrase seems a little contradictory.  That's because Neil Armstrong meant to say, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."  It took him a long time to accept that he'd actually ommitted the 'a'.\n\n--But he knew what he said. "There must be an 'a', " Mr. Armstrong says of the event in the 1986 book Chariots for Apollo. "I rehearsed it that way. I meant it that way. And I'm sure I said it that way." \n\nThen the Grumman representative, Tommy Attridge, put on a commemorative 45-rpm recording of the flight. No matter what speed they played it at, there was no "a". \n\nAccording to the authors, Mr. Armstrong sighed, "Damn, I really did it. I blew the first words on the moon, didn't I?" --\n\nFlubbing his line is a little understandable, since he'd been up for 24 hours straight.  Originally, the astronauts were supposed to sleep in the lunar lander to rest up for the first excursion on the surface of the Moon.  Right .... like they'd really be able to sleep when they're so close to being the first humans to set foot on the Moon.  The astronauts argued for an immediate trip outside and, considering the likelihood they would actually get much sleep, NASA gave in.\n\nIn any event, most people understand what he meant, since it wouldn't make sense to say it was both a small step for man (generically) and a giant leap for man (generically).
1058993
Actually, the reference originally came from a song that was popular in 1956.  It was by the Jayhawks and called Stranded In The Jungle.  It managed to climb the Billboard charts to #18.\n\nThe story is about a guy who gets stranded in a jungle and all he wants to do is get back to his girl in the states.  He gets knocked out, wakes up in a big pot and smells something cooking then realizes he's about to be the main course for a tribe of cannibals.  The next line is "Great googly moogly let me out of here! " \n\nOf course the expression has been used in numerous other songs since but now you know the complete story goes back half a century.
6701
Blue Blood to Blue book to Bluenose?  The etymology of the word Bluenose and the phrase Blue Laws seems to have lost.  The only thing known for sure is that the first use of the term Blue Law that can be documented today is in General History of Connecticut by the Reverend Samuel Peters published in 1781.  It is now assumed that Rev. Peters coined the phrase.
793676
Sorry you've had such rubbish answers. \n\nI'm usually quite good at this sort of thing, but I'm afraid I can't find any info on the origins of this phrase.\n\nI hope someone more knowledgeable answers you soon!
1011220
The term Blue Moon has at least three different meanings. One is a common phrase for a rare event, that really has little to do with the moon itself. Another is a description of the apparent color of the moon, which is frequently yellowish and rarely bluish. Full moons are given names in folklore, and two definitions of blue moon are a name for a rare full moon that does not have a folk name. One modern blue moon definition is for a second, extra full moon that occurs in a calendar month. The older definition of blue moon is for an extra full moon that occurs in a quarter of the year, which would normally have three full moons, but sometimes has four. Oddly, it's the third full moon in a season that has four which is counted as the "extra" full moon and named blue moon.
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."
937274
The phrase is supposed to have originated in England in the 17th century when city streets were filthy and heavy rain would occasionally carry along dead animals. \n\nThe idea that seeing dead cats and dogs floating by in storms would cause people to coin this phrase is just about believable. People may not have actually thought the animals had come from the sky, but might have made up the phrase to suit the occasion.
1130808
Yes, that's where the phrase comes from in the first place
1006405
I’m not positive but I believe that what you have quoted is a version of an old song/poem with multiple versions.  One such version follows here and the source link provides much more detail on its origins.\n\n\nVALERIE BLOOM\nWAKE UP, AMY\nWake up, Amy chile,\nwater fe get,\nthe barrel fe full an’\nwe no draw one pan yet,\nan’ me see de sun\na-come up over de hill,\nah know if I lef ’\nyuh gwine be sleepin’ still\nat half past ten,\nmaybe twelve o’clock,\nif yuh don’t hurry up,\nde school gate gwine lock,\nbefore yuh get dere,\nwe haffe look firewood,\ncomb we hair,\ngive de goat dem food,\ntie out de donkey,\nsweep de yard,\nan’ eat breakfast,\nI know it hard\nFe leave you\nNice warm bed,\nBut work dey fe do,\nGet up, sleepyhead!\nWake up, wake up, wake up beeny bud\nWake up, beeny soon o’ mawnin’,\nWake up, wake up, wake up beeny bud\nWake up, beeny soon o’ mawnin’.
938670
It is not a poem. It is originally from the novel by Charles Dickens,  A Tale of Two Cities.  It is the opening sentence to the novel.  The actual quote is: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.   It is one of the most famous lines in all of literature and quoted very often.  I believe the sentence concerns the French Revolution.