All my eye

Posted by ESC on May 01, 2000

In Reply to: All my eye and Betty Martin posted by judith wright on April 30, 2000

: does anyone know where the above saying comes from or anything about it please... cannot find a listing of it anywhere>>>>>

"ALL MY EYE AND BETTY MARTIN! - inf. (informal) baloney! Various derivations proposed. The most likely would seem to be 'Mihi beata mater' which appears to be Latin for something like 'Grant to me, blessed Mother'). According to one legend, the imperfectly understood phrase was reported back to Britain by a sailor who had been abroad and to him it sounded like 'all my eye and Betty Martin.' The British often shorten the expression to 'all my eye!' .American 'my eye!' Other American synonyms are 'hogwash' and 'eyewash.'" From "British English A to Zed" by Norman W. Schur (HarperCollins, New York, 1987).