Famous phrases and where they came from.

"A fate worse than death"

The phrase was a another term for rape.

This being the belief that a dishonoured
woman was better off dead

From Tarzan of the Apes 1914:
"[The ape] threw her roughly across his broad, hairy shoulders, and
leaped back into the trees, bearing Jane Porter away toward a fate a
thousand times worse than death."

"A little bird told me"



Various authors over the centuries, including
Shakespeare, have made reference to birds, feathered or otherwise,
giving messages. The first that comes close to our current version of
this phrase is Frederick Marryat, in Peter Simple, 1833:


"A little bird has whispered a secret to me."

"Age before beauty"

Started life in the 19th Century as a way of an Older woman who acknowledged a younger woman who stood aside to let her enter the room first.

"Agony Column"

Originally a Newspaper column containing advertisements for missing relatives and friends.

"Annus Horriblus"

Originally applied to the year 1666, following the Great Fire of London, The Plague and War with the Dutch.

Not the best of years i'm sure you'll admit.........