PS

Posted by ESC on October 11, 2000

In Reply to: There is no new thing under the sun posted by ESC on October 11, 2000

: : : does anyone know the origin of this phrase?

: : It's Biblical. O.T., probably Ecclesiastics

: "That thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done; and there is no new thing under the sun." Eccles. 1:9 King James Version.

: "...The proverb appears in the Old Testament, and was first used in English by Chaucer in the 'Knight's Tale' . It is first attested in the United States in the 'Works of Anne Bradstreet' . The proverb was used by Thomas Jefferson in 1801..." From Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings by Gregory Y. Titelman (Random House, New York, 1996).