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Cloud nine

Posted by R. Berg on January 29, 2003

In Reply to: Cloud nine posted by Dusty on January 29, 2003

: My 5th grade son is studying idioms. He needs to find the origin or "on cloud nine". If anyone could please help us. I have searched and found hundreds of idioms but not the one we need. Thanks for your help.

Even an expert on catchphrases, Eric Partridge, offers mere speculations on the origin of this one. He says: "'[to be on] cloud Nine' is a US catchphrase dating since c. 1965 . . . . Perhaps from the slangy 'be over the moon', to be ecstatically happy" (Dictionary of Catch Phrases: American and British, from the Sixteenth Century to the Present Day, 1985). Paul Beale, the editor of the 2nd edition, adds "or an advance on the earlier 'cloud lucky seven'?"

See also: the meaning and origin of 'On Cloud Nine'.

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