WEEK 16 MY HOME IS MY CASTLE; SPARE THE ROD AND SPOIL THE CHILD

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ACHILLE'S HEEL In Greek mythology Thetis dipped her son Achilles in the mythical River Styx. Anyone who was immersed in the river became invulnerable. However Thetis held Achilles by his heel. Since her hand covered this part of his body the water did not touch it and so it remained vulnerable. Achilles was eventually killed when Paris of Troy fired an arrow at him and it hit his heel.BIG WIG In the 18th century when many men wore wigs, the most important men wore the biggest wigs. Hence today important people are called big wigs.BITE THE BULLET This old saying means to grin and bear a painful situation. It comes from the days before anaesthetics. A soldier about to undergo an operation was given a bullet to bite.BITES THE DUST This phrase comes from a translation of the epic Ancient Greek poem the Iliad about the war between the Greeks and the Trojans. It was poetic way of describing the death of a warrior.BLUE-BLOOD This means aristocratic. For centuries the Arabs occupied Spain but they were gradually forced out during the Middle Ages. The upper class in Spain had paler skin than most of the population as their ancestors had not inter-married with the Arabs. As they had pale skin the 'blue' blood running through their veins was more visible. (Of course all blood is red but it sometimes looks blue when running through veins). So blue-blooded came to mean upper class.GET THE SACK This comes from the days when workmen carried their tools in sacks. If your employer gave you the sack it was time to collect your tools and go.

SPICK AND SPAN
Today this means neat and tidy but originally the saying was spick and span new. A span was a wood shaving. If something was newly built it would have tell-tale wood chips so it was 'span new'. Spick is an old word for a nail. New spicks or nails would be shiny. However words and phrases often change their meanings over centuries and spick and span came to mean neat and tidy.
TURN OVER A NEW LEAF
This means to make a fresh start. It meant a leaf or page of a book.


Source :http://www.localhistories.org/sayings.html