The title of the 1918 novel Cabin Fever, by B.M. Bower, references the term then widely used in the American West to denote the restless feeling of being cooped up too long in a cabin all winter. A synonym for cabin fever is shanty fever. On the...
Does the expression to harp on, as in “to nag,” have anything to do with the stringed instrument one plays by plucking? Yes! As early as the 16th century to harp all of one string meant to keep playing the same single note monotonously. This is part...