Genie is out of the bottle

Although the word 'genie' meaning a magical spirit that fulfils wishes or performs tasks, first entered the English language in 1702, according to The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) its use in idioms like 'the genie is out of the bottle' or 'its impossible to get the genie back into the bottle' are much more recent, and not cited before the 1930s. Genies, as magical spirits that take on human form, originate in Arabic, Middle Eastern fables that date back to the 1500s, Tales from the Arabian Nights etc. 'The genie is out of the bottle' as an English idiom, however, means that some news or information has become common knowledge that generally signals ongoing consequences that can be good, bad or embarrassing, depending on the context. As mentioned earlier, this usage is not cited before the 1930s.