Turn over a new leaf.

Posted by Smokey Stover on November 16, 2004

In Reply to: Me, me, me!!! posted by SR on November 16, 2004

: : : In a previous post I used 'turn over a new leaf.' I searched the archives but found no previous discussion on the origin of the phrase. Any ideas?

: :
: : think of a book - perhaps a log or a diary - turn the page and you start afresh. I'll leaf that with you.

: Ah yes! Thank you Lewis! I smile.

After his stint in Reading gaol, Oscar Wilde was urged by a friend to mend his ways, to turn over a new leaf. Wilde agreed. But a few days later, the friend returned to his hotel suite, which he was sharing with Wilde, and found Wilde apparently doing the thing which has no name with the bellboy. Shocked, the friend remonstrated: "But Oscar, you said you would turn over a new leaf." To which Wilde replied, "Yes, but I haven't yet gotten to the bottom of the page." SS