Daniel - The Curious Guide

Search for the origin of the cold shoulder and you’ll probably find this story: in the old days, a welcome guest got a hot meal, but an unwelcome guest was served a cold, leftover shoulder of mutton.

Your coworker Sam promised to send you a file this morning. It’s now 2 p.m. and nothing has arrived. You could decide Sam is lazy. Or you could think, “Maybe something came up. Maybe the internet is d

On November 15, 1889, a Detroit newspaper called The Plaindealer, one of the African-American newspapers of the time, reported that local Democrats were “getting their ducks in a row” before an electi

Before we talk about what this idiom means, here’s a warning: be careful who you say it to.

In 1840, during an American presidential election, supporters of the candidate William Henry Harrison did something strange. According to The Phrase Finder, they built huge balls, about ten feet (thre

Imagine an English learner writes this in a work email: “The manager rejected my idea. He got out of hand.” The writer means the manager said no very quickly. But to a native speaker, it sounds like t

Search for the origin of this idiom and you’ll find the same answer again and again: “It comes from Aesop’s fables.” Some websites even tell a story about a fake doctor who is forced to drink his own

I’ll start with a confession: nobody knows what “the music” in this idiom was. Not me, not the dictionary editors, not the word historians who have spent years searching old newspapers. And yet Englis

Can a cloud have a lining? A coat has a lining. A jacket has a lining. But a cloud?