Friday, April 27, 2007

Rhyme nor Reason.

I have just finished speaking to my mother(86) and she used a common expression - "There's no rhyme nor reason for it to happen". The saying got me thinking as to where it came from and its original meaning.

According to Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable -
If something is 'Neither rhyme nor reason' - it is fit neither for amusement nor instruction. It came into being when an author took his book to Sir Thomas More, Chancellor of Henry VIII and asked his opinion. Sir Thomas told the author to turn it into rhyme. He did so and submitted it again to the Chancellor who said : "Ay! ay! That will do, that will do. 'Tis rhyme now, but before it was neither rhyme nor reason."

I know now what mother meant you see,
Her phone was dead, why would that be?

( it turns out it she had pulled it out of the wall.)



3 comments:

Shelly Kneupper Tucker said...

I love that you take the most mundane incident and use it for research! Your poor mom...is her health good?

Robyn Mills said...

Mentally she is as sharp as a tack, physically though she has poor perception of depth so can't see where she is putting her feet at times and takes a tumble.

Unknown said...

I love hearing about the origins of words and expressions. Thanks for looking this up!