If someone’s impatiently pounding on your front door, you might respond Keep your pants on! The origin of this phrase is unclear, though it may be related to keep your shirt on, and other expressions that refer to partially disrobing before a...
Marie in Anna, Texas, grew up hearing her mother announce, Home again, home again, jiggity-jig at the end of every family trip. The phrase comes from a Mother Goose rhyme: “To market, to market, to buy a fat pig, home again, home again, jiggity-jig...
If you’re fair to middling (or with the g dropped: fair to middlin’), you’re doing just fine. A native of the Tennessee mountains wonders about the origin of this phrase her good-humored grandfather used. As it turns out, fair to middling was one of...