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The Curious Origins of Four English Expressions, Including ‘Will-o'-the-Wisp’ and ‘So Long’
By Francesco Perono Cacciafoco/The Conversation
The origins of English expressions are often obscure and require deep linguistic and documentary research to be explained. Being phrases, not single words, their intrinsic meanings can be reconstructed by studying old texts and their earliest use.
Once the intricacies of their origins are unraveled, they can tell us a lot about how our language has developed over centuries. In the end, they often unveil to us fascinating and unexpected stories. Let’s try to briefly analyze four of them.
1. So long
Though now considered dated, “so long” was once a common English expression. It was used to bid farewell, with different degrees of definitiveness, depending on the context.
The phrase can be interpreted as “goodbye until we’ll meet again”. However, if considered literally, the idiom means just “so long” and nothing else. What happened to its meaning and what are its origins, then?
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If the expression was generated from the English language, it could be considered a shortened form of a sentence like this: “It will only be so long before we meet again.” However, this explanation is based on a retrospective interpretation of the idiom.
Read moreSection: NewsHistory & ArchaeologyHistoryAncient TraditionsRead Later
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