Needle in a haystack

Posted by Victoria S Dennis on July 27, 2007

In Reply to: Needle in a haystack posted by Lee Dennis Armstrong on July 27, 2007

: What is the origin of the phrase "A needle in a haystack?" I thought it was actually biblical but can't find it in the bible concordance.

It's just a very old proverbial phrase. The older version is "a needle in a bottle [i.e. bundle] of hay". Sir Thomas More used a variant of it in 1532: "to go look for a needle in a meadow". (VSD)