A-Z Database
To earmark is to stamp or mark ownership of something. The origin is early 16th century and refers to marks on the ears of sheep or cattle to signify...
see Brownie points
When a person says their ears are burning it means someone, somewhere is talking about them. It is a very old superstition and goes back to at least R...
An interesting word, dates from the early 17th century, and derives from the Dutch ezel and the German esel meaning ass or donkey. Hence, a four-legge...
Although Easter is well known as the Christian feast of the Resurrection of Christ, the origin of the word is surprisingly pagan. The Venerable Bede (...
Easter’s pagan origins are endorsed by Easter bunnies and Easter eggs, which are pagan symbols of fertility and new life, both of which are strongly a...
This expression describes an in-your-face encounter and, depending on the context, it can be either intimate or threatening. It’s originally Ame...
Pies are easy to eat but not to make, therefore the assumption is that this American expression from the 19th century alludes to pie eating, especiall...
Easy peasy is the oldest of these slang expressions mainly used by British children and may have been around for some time before it first appeared in...
Best known as the iconic 1969 movie starring Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper with a cameo performance from Jack Nicholson but few realise that easy rider i...
This American expression for financial comfort and security was coined by George W. Peck in the book Uncle Ike and the Red Headed Boy (1899).
First cited in Grose’s Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue published in 1785 and refers to a woman of low morals, a prostitute.
see Eat one’s gun
Although a citation of the expression 'I'm so hungry I could eat a horse behind the saddle' has been found from the late 1600s, it is no longer in cur...
Eating crow is the American equivalent of having to eat humble pie, where one has to admit one’s mistake, recant, and sometimes atone. To eat crow dat...