Right as the mail

Posted by ESC on July 17, 2008 at 10:15

In Reply to: Right as the mail posted by Adrian Barker on July 16, 2008 at 19:01:

: Hello there, love the website!
: What does or where does the phrase "right as the mail" come from? I heard it from a movie called Tombstone when Val Kilmer collapsed in a bar drunk... you know the one?

I've heard "right as rain" (see below). Maybe right as the mail also means correct, consistent, on time.

RIGHT AS RAIN - "Definitely correct; just the way it should be. It could just as well be 'right as clouds' or any number of other things, but 'rain' it is, doubtless because of the allure of alliteration. The expression has had heavy work since the late 19th century, but an example from 1909 (in Max Beerbohm's 'Yet Again') has the virtue of offerin two cliches in one sentence: 'He looked.'fit as a fiddle', or 'right as rain'.'" From The Dictionary of Cliches by James Rogers (Ballantine Books, New York, 1985).