Blessing in Disguise

Posted by ESC on December 16, 2003

In Reply to: Blessing in Disguise posted by Harold on December 16, 2003

: : Hi! I was wondering what this saying means and where it comes from? Thank you for your help. Sax

: This is the opposite of a 'Gift Horse'. Look this one in the 'mouth' and it turns out to be a rare and beautiful thing - a Unicorn perhaps - rather than a worn out old nag polished up to make it appear young and fit.

Kind along the lines of "every cloud has a silver lining."

BLESSING IN DISGUISE - "An apparent misfortune that turns out to be useful or pleasurable. The phrase was known in the 18th century; its modern meaning was explicit by a century later, as seen in 'Cassell's Magazine' : 'Like many similar disasters, this great calamity was in truth only a blessing in disguise.'" From The Dictionary of Cliches by James Rogers (Ballantine Books, New York, 1985).