Kaitlyn from Rye, New York, is puzzled by people referring to their youth as their salad days. It’s drawn from a metaphor employed at the end of Act One of Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare. Cleopatra recalls a past dalliance with Julius Caesar, and says it occurred when she was “green in judgment, cold in blood,” much like a salad would be fresh and green. This is part of a complete episode.
The phrase Lead on, Macduff, meaning “Let’s go!” or “You go on ahead and I’ll follow,” is an alteration of the famous phrase from the final scene of combat in Shakespeare’s Macbeth (Bookshop|Amazon), where...
Steven in Wilmington, North Carolina, is curious about the terms hankering and unbolted cornmeal. The noun hankering, meaning “a strong desire for something,” is related to the verb “to hang,” as in “hanging...
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