I'm usually fit as a fiddle, but currently I'm as sick as a dog (where do these expressions come from anyway? Any reader who can tell us the origin of either of those phrases will get a cookie as reward). I'm looking forward to a day of hot liquids, rest, perhaps a video and a visit to my physician. How nice to know that even as I languish on my bed of sickness, I could hasten my recovery with some hot Baha'i bloggin':
Baha'i Perspectives, the Jedi Master of Baha'i blogs offers the cheerful topic of God's Wrath
A Baha'i Perspective on Islam reminds us that when it comes to trying to discredit someone's religion, there's nothing new under the sun
Correlating remarks on a new sociology of religion
Baha'i Faith In Egypt has a remarkable essay on the Baha'i minority in that country
Barnabas chronicles the ongoing absurdities confronting the Baha'is of Egypt
Doberman Pizza has a prayer cast. What a concept!
Football and Faith ponders the eyes of perfection
Gems of Oneness shares a little T.I.A. with us
Iran Press Watch features a letter that you need to read!
Moving Pictures discusses Bill Murray's "Groundhog Day"
Povo De Baha takes on the Fundamentalism Bus
Sliding Thoughts endorses some fine Baha'i inspired music
From http://www.phrases.org.uk :
ReplyDeleteAs fit as a fiddle
Meaning
Very fit and well.
Origin
Of course the 'fiddle' here is the colloquial name for violin. 'Fit' didn't originally mean healthy and energetic, in the sense it is often used nowadays to describe the inhabitants of gyms. When this phrase was coined 'fit' was used to mean 'suitable, seemly', in the way we now might say 'fit for purpose'.
Thomas Dekker, in The batchelars banquet, 1603 referred to 'as fine as a fiddle':
"Then comes downe mistresse Nurse as fine as a farthing fiddle, in her petticoate and kertle."
Not long afterwards, in 1616, there's W. Haughton's English-men for my Money, which includes:
"This is excellent ynfayth [in faith], as fit as a fiddle."
anotherworldcitizen, thanks for the research, at least one half of the mystery is solved. We will have to arrange for the receipt of your cookie. Now how about that sick as a dog thing? Anyone?
ReplyDeleteFrom: http://askville.amazon.com/origins-phrase-sick-dog/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=811797
ReplyDelete"Sick as a dog," which means "extremely sick" and dates back to at least the 17th century, is also not so much negative as it is simply descriptive. Anyone who knows dogs knows that while they can and often will eat absolutely anything, on those occasions when their diet disagrees with them the results can be quite dramatic. And while Americans may consider themselves "sick" when they have a bad cold, in Britain that would be called "feeling ill." "Being sick" in Britain usually means "to vomit."
So to really appreciate the original sense of "sick as a dog," imagine yourself seated in the parlor having tea with the Vicar on a lovely Sunday afternoon, when Fido staggers in from a meal of sun-dried woodchuck and expresses his unease all over your heirloom oriental carpet. It's actually rather amazing that goldfish aren't more popular.
Larry O., truly extraordinary. I'll have to ask readers about the origins various figures of speech more often. This has been quite an education!
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