The earliest recorded appearance of the phrases a house divided cannot stand and the powers that be occurred in early English translations of the Bible. Although the exact phrase a fly in the ointment isn’t in the Bible, the idea of a dead fly...
Gabby in San Diego asks about the origin of smitten, a word she likes enough to want it on a vanity license plate. Smitten is the past participle of smite, the old verb meaning “to strike” or “to beat,” familiar from the King James Bible. The...