IDIOM OF THE DAY

[smoooth2]

fortnight ......... means 2 weeks.

Perhaps not an idiom, but close enough. Derived from Old English language which literally means 14 nights.

Last week I was talking with an American friend here in Buriram who was puzzled when I said "fortnight"

When I explained "fortnight", he said "oh .... you mean biweekly."

This intrigued me, as being an Aussie, I've never before heard anyone refer to 2 weeks as "biweekly".

Just another example of cultural and national difference when using English language.

[rufusredtail]

PART

be part and parcel of be an essential feature or element of.
0 Both part and parcel ultimately come
from Latin pars meaning 'part' and in this
phrase they have virtually identical senses. The phrase is first recorded in mid 16th? century legal parlance; it is now used in general contexts to emphasize that the item mentioned is absolutely integral to the whole.

[rufusredtail]

PULL THE PLUG

prevent something from happening or continuing ; put a stop to something.

This phrase alludes to an older type of lavatory flush which operated by the pulling out of a plug to empty the contents of the pan into the soil pipe.

[rufusredtail]

LOSE FACE

 Suffer a loss of respect; be humiliated.

This expression was originally associated with China and was a translation of the Chinese idiom   tiu lien.

[Smithy]

English Idioms 

[rufusredtail]

PLACE IN THE SUN

 a position of favour or advantage

   In 1897 the  German Chancellor, Prince Bernhard Von BUiow, made a speech in the Reichstag in
which he declared: 'we desire  to throw no one into the shade [in East Asia), but  we also demand
our place in the sun'. Asa result, the  expression has become associated with German nationalism;
it is in  fact recorded much earlier and  is traceable to the writings of the French mathematician
and philosopher 8Iaise Pascal (1623-62).