Like nobody's business

Posted by Smokey Stover on September 10, 2009 at 07:51

In Reply to: Like nobody's business posted by Lorne Maclachlan on September 09, 2009 at 20:45:

: The origin of idioms such as "run like nobody's business" seems to be obscure. Can we compare it with "run like anything", which I have heard was introduced in the 1600s to avoid swearing (which might attract a fine at that time?)

The origin of many, if not most, idioms is obscure to a degree. In the case of "like nobody's business," the OED cites a 1938 use of the phrase by P.G. Wodehouse: "The fount of memory spouting like nobody's business." It's likely that Wodehous was not so much avoiding blasphemy as availing himself of a phrase that had become popular in his day, especially in the milieu which he was trying to re-create. Wodehouse tended to prefer genteel expressions to those that might shock, especially one with a touch of humour or originality, and sometimes a whiff of his favorite milieu. And I imagine that it's in this time (1920s and '30s) and in this milieu (carefree upper-class English University types without a lot of responsibility) that the phrase was born.

"Like anything" and the rest of its kind can be attached to any verb, especially of action, to mean "to an extraordinary degree" or "very rapidly." You're right to say that "like anything" seems to have been invented to avoid saying "like the devil" or some such.

Both of these essentially meaningless comparisons remain in use, along with comparisons which are only slightly more appropriate, such as "like mad" and "like crazy."
SS