The phrase (as) happy (or jolly) as a sandboy means extremely happy or carefree.
A sandboy was a boy hawking sand for sale. It seems that the earliest use of the word is… 1,000 more words
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Shakespeare didn't actually invent all those words that dictionaries say he did
The phrase “wild goose chase” was not invented by Shakespeare.
72 more wordsThe OED, which saw its original volumes published between 1884 and 1928, includes more than 33,000 Shakespeare quotations, according to McInnis, with around 1,500 of those “the first evidence of a word’s existence in English”, and around 7,500 “the first evidence of a particular usage of meaning”.
Nicola Griffith's writing space
Nicola Griffith is the author of Hild, and five other novels, plus short stories, essays and polemics. She’s working on the sequel to Hild… 657 more words
Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages
I have recently come across the website for the Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages (Vaclang, for short), found here.
This website is a great resource for almost anything to do with the languages of Victoria. 357 more words
to miss the bus
The phrase to miss the bus, or the boat, etc., means to be too slow to take advantage of an opportunity.
In… 531 more words
