Re: Paint
the lily
Posted by R. Berg on May 17, 2002
In Reply to: Re: Coals to Newcastle posted
by TheFallen on May 17, 2002
: : : : How to form a sentence with
the idiom " carry coals to Newcastle " ? ( "Carry coals to Newcastle " = to supply
something which is unnecessary )
: : : "Taking food to my grandmother's house
would be like carrying coals to Newcastle. She always has a big meal ready when
her family visits."
: : TO CARRY COALS TO NEWCASTLE - "The current American
equivalent is 'to sell refrigerators to the Eskimos.' The idea is of doing something
that is the height of superfluity. In explanation, Newcastle - or Newcastle upon
Tyne, to use the official name of the ancient English city - lies in the center
of the great coal-mining region of England.The saying was recorded by Heywood
in 1602; as he labeled it common even then, it may well go back a century or two
earlier. Similar sayings occur in all languages." From "2107 Curious Word Origins,
Sayings & Expressions from White Elephants to a Song and Dance" by Charles Earle
Funk (Galahad Book, New York, 1993).
: A little research quickly dredges up
some other great idioms for redundant and unnecessary action, including teaching
your grandmother to suck eggs, carrying owls to Athens, teaching fish to swim,
killing the slain, buttering your bread on both sides, putting butter on bacon
and carrying water to the river. Not to be outdone, Shakespeare apparently got
in on the act and gave us "to gild refined gold", "to paint the lily" and "to
throw a perfume on the violet". Odd, that... I always thought the expression was
"to gild the lily"... or am I thinking of something else?
S. wrote "paint the
lily," which is often misquoted as "gild the lily." Centuries of sloppy scholarship
have contaminated your memory of the line.
- Re:
Paint the lily bob 05/18/02 ( 3)
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