What? Where did that come from? Common expressions and where they came from.

Have you ever been sitting in a room with a group of friends or family and heard a common expression like "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence" or "rome wasn't built in a day?" Have you ever wondered where these sayings came from? Well, I am going to tell you. After a night of hearing a bunch of these expressions come from my fiancee and best friend I though that I would research the TRUE meanings and origins of these sayings.

For example "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence" means that another lifestyle or situation looks better then the one that you are currently in or have. This was comes from the habits of animals grazing through the fence separating them from the next field. "Rome wasn't built in a day" means nothing is accomplished without hard work and perseverance. This originated from an ancient Latin Proverb that has repeated since. "Add insult to Injury" comes from a play by Edward Moore and possibly from on of Aesop's fables where a man suffered the embarrassment of hitting himself in the face while trying to kill a fly that just bit him. "Stuck between a rock and a hard place" this means to have no good alternatives. I comes from Odysseus' dilemma of passing between Scylla ( a monster on the cliffs) and Charybdis ( a dangerous whirlpool. Neither is desirable and both are hard to overcome. "Cold turkey" as in quitting cold turkey. Usually refers to heroin addicts because in the state of drug withdrawal the addicts blood is directed to internal organs, leaving the skin white and with goose bumps resembling a cold turkey. This originated in the 1930's. "Hunky Dory" originated in Yokohama Japan during WW1. Huncho-dori was a street that was visited by American soliders. Huncho-dori was a place for leisure and fun.

These are just some fun ones that I could find. Now it's your turn post a comment and let me know which ones you would like to know. I will gather them up and make a part two.