does anyone know where the saying "fit as a fiddle" came from? or how is started?
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.
324418
Try an advanced Yahoo! search for this exact phrase. And yes, all writers started out as readers.\n\nbtw--they say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery--it can also be the shortest route to a lawsuit for copyright violation--
664889
It started off as a raunchy song from the military, "Do Your Balls Hang Low?" Other verses named other pendulous body parts, easily guessed. It was completely sanitized and became a children's song, often sung at summer camp, preschools, etc. \n\nIn Britain, there is a raunchy rugby song with similar lyrics. This song may have come from an old British naval song that used "Continental soldier" because the four syllables of continental go well with soldier (and rhymes with shoulder - well, kind of!) ... and refers to British American colonists whom British sailors enjoyed taunting. Anything I find about origins, lists simply "Traditional" and "Anonymous."\n\nThe two tunes most often used for this song are "Sailor's Hornpipe" and "Turkey in the Straw."
446304
I found this on line,\n\n"Devious Derivations: Popular Misconceptions -- and More than 1,000 True Origins of Common Words and Phrases" by Hugh Rawson (toExcel, Iuniverse.com, 1994, 2000). This reference has some new information on the origins listed here (new information in parenthesis), new origins and what could be the actual origin. \n\n: : 1. Orrin Kendall biscuits, which soldiers ate during the Civil War. \n: : 2. Short for Aux Cayes, a Haitian port that American sailors praised for its rum. \n: : 3. Old Keokuk, a Native American tribal chief who was said to have signed treaties with his initials. \n: : 4. OK stands for "all correct" or the illiterate phrase "Orl Korrect." \n: : 5. U.S. President Martin Van Buren's nickname "Old Kinderhook" -- OK for short. He was a native of Kinderhook, N.Y.\n: : 6. Choctaw word "okeh," (or "hoke") meaning "indeed" (or "It is so.")\n: : 7. Scottish "auch aye", meaning "ah yes." (Or "och aye," meaning "okay.")\n: : 8. From the French maritime phrase "au quai" meaning "at dock", and therefore at last safe from the ravages of the open sea.\n: : 9. '0 killed' - the report of the night's death toll during the First World War. \n: : 10. All clear after the shoot-out at O.K. Corral. \n: : 11. Instruments calibrated at an Observatory at Kew had, affixed to them, a stamp, or impression, to authenticate that calibration. This stamp was O K - Observatory Kew. \n\n: : New origins from Mr. Rawson's book:\n: : 12. The abbreviation is for Oberst Kommandant, German for "Colonel in Command," used by either -- take your pick -- a General Schliessen or Baron von Steuben when initialing letters and orders during the American Revolution.\n: : 13. It comes from the name of a freight agent, Obadiah Kelly, whose initials were widely disseminated on bills of lading.\n: : 14. The abbreviation is for Open Key, popularized by telegraphers in the 1860s.\n: : 15. It comes from the names of Lords Onslow and Kilbracken, who initialed bills after they were read and approved in England's House of Lords. \n: : 16. From a misreading of "Order Recorded" on official documents.\n: : 17. Or from Finnish "oikea," correct.\n: : 18. From the Greek "olla," all, plus "Kalla," good.\n\n: : Professor Allen Walker Read of Columbia University, "finally unveiled its (O.K.'s) origins in a series of magisterial articles in 'American Speech' in 1963 and 1964.What Professor Read discovered was that the abbreviation arose in a humorous manner at a time when Americans were indulging in a great deal of wordplay, including abbreviations, acronyms, puns and intentional mispronunciations and misspellings. The earliest example of O.K. that he unearthed (and it is so far still the oldest known specimen) is from the Boston 'Morning Post' of March 23, 1839. It appears in connection with a note by the paper's editor, Charles Gordon Greene, about a visit to New York of some members of the local Anti-Bell-Ringing Society. (The A.B.R.S., as it was usually known, was itself something of a joke, having been formed the previous year to oppose -- its name to the contrary -- an ordinance of the Boston Common Council against ringing dinner bells.) In an aside, Mr. Greene suggested that if the Bostonians were to return home via Providence, they might be greeted by one of his rivals, the editor of that city's 'Journal,' who 'would have the 'contribution box,' et ceteras, o.k. -- all correct -- and cause the corks to fly, like sparks, upward.'.Thus, it appears that O.K. was invented, possibly by Greene, as an abbreviation of the jocular 'Oll' or perhaps 'Orl korrect,' meaning "All right.' This explanation would seem farfetched, except for Read's finding that it dovetai
652864
"Hick" is widely agreed to be derived from a nickname for Richard --Middle English Hikke\nhttp://www.thefreedictionary.com/dict.asp?Word=hick\nhttp://www.webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?sourceid=Mozilla-search&va=hick\n\nSimilarly, the Oxford English Dictionary says it was "by-form" of the personal name Richard (like Dick) and Hob (like Bob) for Robert.\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hick\n\n"Hick" was actually just one of many examples of a trend of creating rhyming nicknames (arbitrarily changing the first letter).   Hick and Dick (appearing in wriring around 1220) were  at the beginning of a great 13th-14th century trend That's where we get all these surprising forms like Polly from Molly, Bob from Rob (from Robert), Bill from Will (from William); and Hodge from Roger.\nIncidentally, a variant on this is also preserved in the nursery rhyme "HICKORY, dickory, dock"!\nhttp://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mdick.html\n\nFor other forms of "letter swapping" to create nicknames, and a variety of other methods by which English nicknames developed see:\nhttp://www.geocities.com/edgarbook/names/other/nicknames.html\n\nThe derogatory use of "hick" apparently goes back to the beginning, or very near it.   In fact, it may have been specifically coined to mock countryfolk.\n\n"At the time "hick" arose as a derogatory term for a country bumpkin in England around 1565, "Richard" was considered (unfairly, of course) a typical "country" name, much in the way "Paddy" (short for "Patrick," after the patron saint of Ireland) came to signify "Irishman." '\nhttp://www.word-detective.com/061300.html
634399
I have a dictionary of quotations and did a search on the web.  Although I found a song by that title, I think the saying has to do with the elaborate mating rituals of birds.  They have evolved plumage and rituals that are associated with finding a mate.  Perhaps spending time on these sorts of things is "for the birds"?
861214
Well it is actually an old English proverb.  "Look ere ye leap" written by John Heywood in 1546.  I suppose since we don't say "ere" and "ye" anymore, it just transformed.  He is also famous for "The more the merrier" and "Haste makes waste" among others.\n\nHope that helps.  \nCheck the link below for more.
497266
The story -- often repeated in print & orally -- is this:\n>\n>    The phrase "Rule of Thumb" comes from English Common\n>    Law which deemed it a man's right to beat his wife\n>    with a stick no thicker than the diameter of his thumb.\n>\n>For the last 6 or 7 years I have been looking for **RELIABLE** confirmation\n>of this, and/or the earliest legal reference to this "Common Law."  I have\n>found MANY sources that *claim* that it stems from English Common Law, but\n>searches of legal decisions (by friends who are lawyers or legal researchers)\n>and/or of Blackstone, etc. never turn up any actual reference to a legal\n>decision citing this "common law" or even any reference to it.  I'm beginning\n>to wonder if this is another Academic Myth.\n>\n>Please reply privately, and I will summarize for the list if there is interest.\n>------------------------\n>Ruth Ginzberg <rginzberg  AT  eagle.wesleyan.edu>\n>Philosophy Department;Wesleyan University;USA\n \nThe only place I know to look for answers to such questions is the OED.\nIt won't state straight out that such-and-such is the case, but if you know\nhow to read the OED you can often figure out likelihoods.\n \nThe whip thing is a bit of modern folklore.  It is typical of such back-formed\nexplanations well-known to linguists and folklorists.  (The folk etymology\nof 'asparagus' as 'sparrow-grass' and the plague interpretation of 'Ring\nAround the Rosie' are two others.)\n \nThe real explanation of 'rule-of-thumb' is that is derives from wood\nworkers (or other constructors) who knew their trade so well they rarely\nor never fell back on the use of such things as rulers.  Instead they'd\nmeasure things by, for example, the length of their thumb;  they measured,\nnot by a rule(r) of wood, but by rule of thumb.  The term was already in\nmetaphorical use by the late 17th century.\n \nI'd like to see the accumulated references to the wife-beating explanation.\n I wonder for instance just when that back-formed 'origin' came into being?
165477
Like a tee is also interchangeable with to a tee.\n\n"We use this expression very commonly in the sense of minute exactness, perfection; as, the coat fits to a T; the meat was done to a T. \n\nIt is easy to dismiss the origin of the expression as, I am sorry to say, some of our leading dictionaries do, by attributing it to the draftsman's T-square, which is supposed to be an exact instrument, but the evidence indicates that the expression was in common English use before the T-square got its name. \n\n'To a T' dates back to the seventeenth century in literary use and was undoubtedly common in everyday speech long before any writer dared to or thought to use it in print. But it is likely that the name of the instrument, 'T-square,' would have been in print shortly after its invention, yet the first mention is in the eighteenth century. \n\nThe sense of the expression corresponds, however, with the older one, 'to a tittle,' which appeared almost a century earlier, and meant 'to a dot,' as in 'jot or tittle.' Beaumont used it in 1607, and it is probably that colloquial use long preceded his employment of the phrase." From "2107 Curious Word Origins, Sayings & Expressions from White Elephants to a Song and Dance" by Charles Earle Funk (Galahad Books, New York, 1993).\n\nI use the source below for all of my phrase origin needs.
1140536
The horseshoe seems to have been introduced to Western culture by the Greeks in the 4th Century\nand the blacksmith would mess up a horse shoe he would throw it in a corner, so one day one of his workers nailed one up on the door way and he said by facing it up..it keeps all the GOOD LUCK inside of it..and they also sold them to others telling them about the Good Luck the hose shoe brings if you have it facing upwards..and so it goes back that far and that's about when it started\n\nGOOD LUCK\nsmile\nbeautiful long legged woman\nand\nGod Bless
635219
Wasn't able to find anything on how it started or when, but I found a couple of links where you might be able to get some more information.  I did find some speculation on it originating from Maypole dancing or tree dancing, but nothing solid.  Good luck.
777311
I looked at your question and since I love quotations (and remember Eddie Cantor), I thought I'd give a try to find the source.  Good grief.  A zillion quotation sites, and nary a source.  I did come up with another place for you, though - The Eddie Cantor Appreciation Society (with a site currently visited by over 99,000 whoopee makers) has an email address (info@EddieCantor.com).  If I were you I'd ask them, as some fans probably know dialogue by heart.  Good luck, and sorry I wasn't able to be more precise.
843730
With your loin cloth?\n\nIt's a reference to the dress styles of those days.\n\nIn todays context, we'd say "roll up your sleeves".
1116192
The others are correct with their answers, however there is another version as well that I have heard.\nHere are the lyrics for the 'long' version and the 'short' version is below.\n\nSometimes some crimes\nGo slippin' through the cracks\nBut these two gumshoes\nAre pickin' up the slack\n\nThere's no case too big, no case too small\nWhen you need help just call\n\nCh-ch-ch-Chip 'n Dale\nRescue Rangers\nCh-ch-ch-Chip 'n Dale\nWhen there's danger\n\nNo no, it never fails\nOnce they're involved\nSomehow whatever's wrong get solved\n\nFresh prints, not since\nWatson and Mr. Holmes\nHave two minds so fine\nLooked under every stone\n\nWhen you need some help to save the day\nThey're never far away\n\nCh-ch-ch-Chip 'n Dale\nRescue Rangers\nCh-ch-ch-Chip 'n Dale\nWhen there's danger\n\nNo no, it never fails\nOnce they're involved\nSomehow whatever's wrong get solved\n\nGrey skies; It's trouble \nBad guys see double \nWhen they're around \nThe chips are never down\n\nCh-ch-ch-Chip 'n Dale\nRescue Rangers\nCh-ch-ch-Chip 'n Dale\nWhen there's danger\n\nNo no, it never fails\nThey'll take the clues\nAnd find the wheres and whys and whos\n\nThe 'short' version (tv) is as follows:\n\nSometimes some crimes\nGo slippin' through the cracks\nBut these two gumshoes\nAre pickin' up the slack\n\nThere's no case too big, no case too small\nWhen you need help just call\n\nCh-ch-ch-Chip 'n Dale\nRescue Rangers\nCh-ch-ch-Chip 'n Dale\nWhen there's danger\n\nNo no, it never fails\nOnce they're involved\nSomehow whatever's wrong get solved\n\nCh-ch-ch-Chip 'n Dale\nRescue Rangers\nCh-ch-ch-Chip 'n Dale\nWhen there's danger\n\nNo no, it never fails\nThey'll take the clues\nAnd find the wheres and whys and whos\n\nCh-ch-ch-Chip 'n Dale\nRescue Rangers\nCh-ch-ch-Chip 'n Dale\nWhen there's danger\n\nCh-ch-ch-Chip 'n Dale
1184153
Fit to be tied\n \nMeaning: To be very angry, livid. \nExample: When his wife saw the car he'd bought she was fit to be tied. \n\nOrigin: "Tied" in this case refers to being bound as in a straight jacket.   The need for being tied is to control ones actions to prevent from acting on the anger. \n\n****************************************\nPhrase Finder Home\n\nRe: Fit to be tied\n\n--------------------------------------------------------------------------------\nPosted by Victoria S Dennis on May 13, 2005 at 07:56:03:\nIn Reply to: Fit to be tied posted by Steve Polansky on May 13, 2005 at 07:07:39:\n\n: What is the origin of "fit to be tied"? Context suggests it means very angry or agitated, but I would like to know its origin. Eligibility for the longarmed restraint suit used for violent mental patients?\n\n:: Cassell's Dictionary of Slang says that it is mid-19th century in origin. Cassell just says that the phrase evokes someone "so hysterically furious that they need to be tied down". However, given that in the mid-19th century the straitjacket was in common use for restraining mental patients, I think it's very likely that that is indeed what the phrase is meant to imply.
616995
Here is one possible interpretation of this "camp-fire song."  The auto-formatting feature of this forum will not allow me to reprint your request in "fake book" style for all to see and so I, regrettably, must direct you to the web-source at:\n\nhttp://xenia.media.mit.edu/~kristin/songbook/OnAndOn/HoleAtTheBottomAtTheSea.html\n\nAll my best to you!
79395
actually this question was AOL's home page the other day I believe. The saying came from the horse racing track. People would offer a tip and a horse that would win and if was an insider ( jockey, trainer, ect)  or reliable tip they would say it came "straight from the horses mouth"