The Curious Origins of Popular Sayings

We use expressions and idioms in everyday conversation. But have you ever wondered where they come from? For example, why shouldn’t we cry over spilt milk? And who’s going around killing two birds with one stone, or putting cats into bags?

In English in particular, many of our most popular sayings have these interesting and obscure origins. Some of which are pretty dark: did you know that the phrase “saved by the bell” may have arisen from fears of being buried alive?

In this video, we'll explore the strange origins of these popular sayings:

- Don’t cry over spilt milk
- An apple a day keeps the doctor away
- Kill Two birds with one stone
- The feather/straw that broke the horse's/camel’s back
- An eye for an eye
- Speak of the Devil
- Saved by the bell
- Bite the Bullet

But there are so many more out there, so write down below some sayings that you would like to see explored. Thank you all for 400k subscribers!

H.

-------------
Watch some of my other videos:

Survival Guide to the Biblical Apocalypse:

The Dark Side of Nursery Rhymes:

-------------
Music:

Intro - Epic of Gilgamesh in Sumerian by Peter Pringle

Fox Tale Waltz Part 1 Instrumental by Kevin MacLeod

Bass Vibes by Kevin MacLeod

The Ulgonsah Witches: Will it End by CO.AG

Elf Meditation Preview by Kevin MacLeod

Guzheng City by Kevin MacLeod

Western Streets by Kevin MacLeod

Outro - Peaceful Ambient Music by CO.AG

-------------
Further Reading:

Proverbial Phrases - Wiki:

A list of 680 English Proverbs:

Idiom Dictionary:

"Dictionary of idioms and their Origins" by Linda & Roger Flavell

PETA's animal friendly sayings:

-------------
Find me on Social Media:

Twitter:

Instagram:

Discord:

---------
Email me:

#sayings #origins

[ShopFloorMonkey]

The theatrical good-luck term "Break A Leg" actually has nothing to do with your lower limbs.
A 'leg', in old theatrical parlance, was the handle of the wheel and pulley system that was used to raise and lower the set pieces (such as painted backdrops etc) onto the stage, which in this case was referring to the curtain separating the actor from the audience.
At the end of the show, the curtain would come down, but if the audience continued to applaud, the curtain would rise again and the actors would take another bow. This would carry on until the applause died down enough to not justify another bow. So, the saying actually referred to wishing the actor(s) had such a good show that it would cause so many raisings and lowerings of the curtain that you would 'break a leg' on the pulley system.

[ThePomeranianPrince]

The very last idiom being represented by "it ain't over till the fat lady sings" at the end of the video was a nice touch.

[PicoDePelicano]

I have a german friend that was talking with me about some girl the other day, and due to the language barrier he didn’t actually know the saying, but when that girl came across the room he yelled “oh look here comes satan” and I blasted out laughing

[mouse]

"More than one way to skin a cat" refers to Catfish. Catfish was often shorted to just cat like the phrase "just catching cats". Also, catfish have to be skinned because they don't have scales and of course there is more than one way to do this.

[AccentedCinema]

Funnily enough, the phrase "Kill two birds with one stone" eventually made its way back into the Chinese language.
It reads "One stone Two birds" (一石二鸟).
The phrase is also used in Japanese, as well.

[cargo_vroom]

As a minor point about "bite the bullet" It probably wasn't about the modern jacketed things with the self contained brass case as shown in the pictures. Those were just barely in use during the Civil War. But literally just the bullet. Which at the time would have been made of almost pure lead. Which is soft enough to mark with your fingernail. So it's something you can clench your teeth on very hard without damaging them. Theoretically.

[manofhealing]

"It ain't over till the fat lady sings" comes from a Wagner opera (from which parts of Lord of the Rings was inspired from, mainly, the One Ring) called Der Ring Des Nibelungen. Ride of the Valkyries is also from this opera, fun fact. Anyways, the opera was long, like, very long, like, split into 4 sections performed over 4 days long. It's total time is about 17 hours. The ending featured a woman singing, usually a larger woman, since the score called for high yet loud notes to be sung, and only a select few were capable of singing it. So with an opera this long, split up into several days, each day with around 4 hours of listening, with days off in between, you can see how it was easy to get confused about where in the operas plot you left off and which part is coming next. A lot of comments at the time mention people basically asking how do you know when it ends? And well, it ends when the fat lady sings. This notion remained even in popular culture, theres a bugs bunny episode that features music from the opera and people dressed as valkyries, and they are of course, fat. Tom and Jerry also had an episode with an opera singer who sung music from this opera and she was fat. And so on and so on. Now you know, It aint over till the fat lady sings, Ride of the Valkyries, and Lord of the Rings all come from the same source.

[danmur]

5:05 even other animal rights activists largely consider PETA to be a laughingstock. I had a boss who used to work for the ASPCA and he said that no one takes them seriously.
i know that their list of alternative sayings was met with nearly the same response on the internet.

[mrcheekibreeki]

"Don't take advice from a high school guidance counselor unless you want to be a high school guidance counselor."

[lostkin]

Could you please explain the origins of the ancient proverb:

"This shit bussin' bussin'"

[freddyfroggroove]

In Danish, we have another version of "Speak of the Devil", that turns it into something postive. We say "Når man taler om solen", translating to "When you speak of the sun", and it means that when you talk about the sun, it will show itself through the clouds. So in a way, a bit less of an angelic version than what appeared as a positive in this video.
Loved all the proverbs, and their origins btw!

[Bia]

Many of these sayings have Portuguese equivalents. For instance, "saved by the bell" is "salvo pelo gongo", which is the bell specifically used in boxing. We also don't kill birds with a stone, but two rabbits with a staff ("dois coelhos com uma cajadada só"). We also say that if you speak of the devil, his tail appears ("falou no diabo, aparece o rabo"). And Latino cats usually have seven lives, not nine.

[monster]

I always assumed the “no use crying over spilled milk” expression came from farming.

If you milk a cow, sometimes the pail could get knocked over and all the milk gets spilled into the dirt. It can’t exactly be recovered after that.

[superbad]

The “Grab a rose by its thorns” saying kinda sounds badass.

[brettb.]

To me, the “conflicting” proverbs are a way of saying sometimes you need to answer a fool in his folly and other times it’s not worth it and you’ll just end up suffering for it. Wisdom is knowing when to use each method.

[brendanneis]

I've never really thought of "crying over spilled milk" to mean "what's done is done". I generally use it to mean "no worries over menial losses". As in, milk is so cheap and abundant that to cry over it would be the real waste, not that it cannot be recovered afterwards. Am I wrong here?

[zackgeldhof]

I love the phrase "Blood is thicker than water, " because it means the exact opposite of what people think it does. "The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb." Or: "The bonds we create in life are stronger than the bonds of birth." However, I don't know where it came from and I think it would be fun to explore the original phrase.

[Phagastick]

I'm no fan of PETA, but "Feeding a fed horse" actually sounds really good. Fits well with "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink"

[MrLins-wvtg]

Here in Italy "two birds with one stone" was already more "friendly". We have "due piccioni con una fava" (two pidgeons with one bean) the bean was used to lure them in the traps.

[metalxhead]

My old therapist preferred saying "Get two birds stoned at once" lol.