| ThomasPal | Дата: Пятница, 27.11.2015, 20:57 | Сообщение # 1 |
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| Florid, ornate piece of writing; period of ostentatiously erratic or bad behaviour the second of these meanings derives from the first, which in turn goes back to the latin poet horace (65-8 bc). In his ars poetica, a work of literary criticism that exercised some influence on later english writers, he describes an obtrusively ornate passage of composition designed for show as a 'purple patch' sewn on a garment for display. His choice of colour showed wit: 'purple' was the synonym of the rank of the roman emperor as well as the colour of his robe (and that of other high notables). To wear a purple patch was therefore comically pretentious.
Canadian researchers have found that Einstein’s brain was 15% wider than normal.
Walls have ears, the this is a warning to watch what you say, or what secrets you divulge, wherever you are, because someone might be listening. In the time of catherine de medici (1519-89), certain rooms in the louvre palace, paris, were said to be constructed to conceal a network of listening tubes called auriculaires, so that what was said in one room could be clearly heard in another. This was how the suspicious queen discovered state secrets and plots. The legend of dionysus's ear may also have been the inspiration for this audiovisual play on words. Dionysus was a tyrant of syracuse (see sword of damocles) in 431-367 bc, and his so-called 'ear' was a large ear-shaped underground cave cut in a rock that was connected to another chamber in such a way that he could overhear the conversation of his prisoners.
Carry coals to newcastle take the blame (for another's error); take responsibility usually said to originate from the beer-can which one soldier, probably the newest recruit, carried for all his companions. Another version of the expression is 'carry the can back', which implies the additional menial task of taking the empty can back to the quartermaster's stores. This explanation leaves unanswered some obvious questions about the availability of strong drink to men in military service. A better if less colourful explanation may lie in a dialect word 'cag' (bad temper), which became corrupted to 'keg' and in turn to can; 'carry (on) the cag/keg/can' (sulk) may have changed its meaning as time went by.
Needle in a haystack capacity for inspiring leadership the hero of trafalgar, the battle (1805) which decided the survival of britain and the freedom of europe, seems to have invented this phrase himself to describe his own ability. From what he wrote, it is not clear whether he was referring to his battle-plan or to the magic of his name, but it is the latter that lies behind modern applications of the phrase.
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