A Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, listener has been pondering the saying It’s an ill wind that blows nobody good, and specifically whether she uses it correctly. The expression usually appears as It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good...
Jocelyn in Richmond, Virginia, is curious about the expression busier than a one-armed paper hanger, meaning extremely busy. Perhaps the earliest version of this phrase comes from a 1908 short story by O. Henry: as busy as a one-armed man with the...
The exhortation in Shakespeare’s Henry V, “Once more unto the breach, dear friends,” is now a part of common speech. But not every fan of the Bard knows what a breach is. It’s simply a gap—a space between two things. This is...
HENRY n.—Gloss: A person who is a High Earner But Not Rich Yet. «“My bonus is ‘shameful’—but I worked hard to get it,” said John Konstantinidis, a wholesale insurance broker, lunching Friday at Harry’s at Hanover Square. “I’m a HENRY,” Mr...