Stories behind the sayings
2 September 2026
Back-To-School Sayings Are Older And Sharper Than They Sound
Every late August, Britain reaches for the same handful of sayings about school, teaching and stubborn learners. Their origins turn out to be older, sourer and stranger than the classroom clichés suggest.
26 August 2026
The Bank Holiday Moved Dates, But These Rest Phrases Never Changed Meaning
The August bank holiday shifted from the first Monday of the month to the last for most of the UK in the late 1960s. The phrases we use about rest and idleness have their own, stranger histories.
19 August 2026
The Ashes Urn Takes Its Name From A Funeral Service, Not A Cricket Pitch
Cricket's oldest rivalry has given English two phrases that behave very differently under scrutiny. One is a genuine pitch condition with a real Victorian source; the other borrows its name from a burial service, not the game itself.
12 August 2026
The Loud Word Behind Boomtown, Baby Boomers And The Final Frontier
Boomtown is trending again, and the word's history is a small lesson in how a sound became a synonym for sudden wealth. The same 'boom' turns up in baby boomers, in Star Trek's frontier, and in the old saying about muck and brass.
7 August 2026
The Silly Season Has Its Own Phrasebook Of Nonsense
Late summer is when British newspapers traditionally run thin on real news and thick on odd ones, a stretch known as the silly season. The phrases we reach for to describe that filler, and the stories it produces, have their own overlooked histories.
22 July 2026
We Are In The Dog Days. They Have Nothing To Do With Dogs
Late July is when Britain reaches for the phrase 'dog days'. The Romans who coined it were not thinking about exhausted labradors on hot pavements.