HOW SOME POPULAR SAYINGS ORIGINATED.

Temuka Leader, Issue 933, 28 March 1882, Page 3

HOW SOME POPULAR SAYINGS ORIGINATED.

Old Nick.—A vulgar And ancient name for the devil, derived from that of the Neck or Nickke, an ocean or river god of the Scandinavian popular mythology. Butler, the author of Hudibraserroneously derives the term from the name of Nicolo Machiavelli. Blue Moon.—“ Once in a blue moon,” or very rarely indeed. The expression resembles that of the Greek Kalends, which means “ never,” because there were no Greek Kalends. So “ once in a blue moon,” means very rarely, because a blue moon is as uncommon as a Greek Kalend.

Jack Ketch, —A hangman or executioner, commonly so-called from one John Ketch, a wretch who lived in the time of James 11., and made himself universally odious by the butchery of many brave and noble victims, particularly those sentenced to death by the infamous Jeffreys, daring the “ Bloody Assizes.”

That Beats Banagher,—Banagher is in the King’s County, Ireland, on the River Shannon. It formerly sent two members to Parliament, and was a pocket borough. When a member spoke of anything rotten, he could devise no stronger expression than

that beats Banagher, and JBanagher beats the devil, and it consequently pass’ (i into a household phrase, Roland for an Oliver.—Roland and Oliver were two of the most famous in the list of Charlemagne’s twelve peers i and their exploits are rendered so ridiculously and equally extravagant by the old romancers, that from thence arose that saying amongst our plain and sensible ancestors, of giving a “Roland for hi Oliver,” to signify the matching of one incredible lie with another . A Man of Straw.—A nonentity. At first the, term arose from scarecrows stuffed with straw. Afterwards in the Greek Courts, false witnesse.s could at all times be obtained, their distinctive feature being straw shoes. In the courts at Westminister Hall, many years ago, a similar class of miscreants could be procured, the signal for infamy being a straw in the shoe. The Schoolmaster Abroad. — Lori Brougham in one of his speeches said : —“ Let the soldier be abroad if he will, he can do'hothing in this age,. There is another personage, a personage less imposing in the eyes of some, perhaps insignificant. The schoolmaster is abroad, and I trust to him, armed with his primer, against the soldier in full military array,” Adallumites. —Politicians who desert their party at a crisis. This nickname originated in the discussion on a Refoxm Bill introduced by Earl Bussal’s Government in 1866 when Mr Bright referred to the powerful opposition among the supporters of the Government as a “ Cave of Adallum” into which went “ everyone that was in dis - tress, and everyone that was in debt, and everyone that was discontented,” gathering themselves under the leadership of two of the ablest in the party. The opposition from their candid friends wrecked the Government which immediately resigned. The Man in the Moon.—A name popularly given to the dark lines and spots upon the surface of the moon which are visible to the naked eye, and which when examined with a good telescope, are discovered to be the shadows of lunar mountains. It Is one of the most popular, and perhaps one of the most ancient superstitions in the world, that these lines and spots are the figure of a man leaning on a fork on which he carries a bundle of thorns or brushwood, for stealing which, on a Sunday,he was tran ported to the moon • The account given in the Bible of a man who was stoned to death for gathering sticks on the Sabbath day, is undoubtedly the origin of the belief.