Re: Paint
the lily
Posted by bob on May 18, 2002 In Reply to: Re: Paint the lily posted by R. Berg
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.
Misquotations run rampant: Here's your test; fill
in the blanks:
All that _______ is not gold.
Alas, poor Yorick. I knew
him _______.
Pride _______ before a fall.
Play it ______ Sam.
Music
hath charms to soothe the savage ____.
- Re: Paint the
lily Gary 05/18/02 ( 1)
|