Bell | search
Click here to view Bell news from 60+ newspapers.
Bookmark or Share- idioms - For whom the bell tolls - origin of "ask not" instead of ...HAGSTRUM: I was rather amused to read that after Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls came out with its quotation from John Donne's Devotions people came to the libraries and wanted the complete works of John Donne. Here was one book which influenced another much in the same manner as a movie will influence the sale of the book.
- grammar - Why "go off", as in "alarm went off"? - English Language ...It dates from medieval England when households revolved around a fire upon which a pot would be continuously simmering. This was linked to some sort of bell which would chime continuously. If the fire went off, the energy (heat) from the fire would stop the chiming thus causing the alarm. Hence we use the phrase when the alarm goes off!
- etymology - What caused bell peppers to be called capsicums in some ...1707 H. Sloane Voy. Islands I. 241 Bell Pepper. The fruit is large..somewhat shaped like a bell.. . . ("pepper, n." OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2016. Web. 24 August 2016. Sense 3.) Capsicum, on the other hand, is first attested as a botanical term for the plant in 1664, and as a term for the plant's fruit in 1725. ("capsicum, n."
- "Obscene yourself" (literally) in Hemingway's "For Whom The Bell Tolls"I am reading Hemingway's "For Whom The Bell Tolls" (an edition from 1960). Throughout the book, strong words and obscenities are replaced literally by the term "obscenity" or similar. For example (emphasis added): “My transmission is smashed,” the driver, who was bent over by the rear of his truck, said. “Obscene your transmission. Go ...
- What is the origin of the idiom "with all the bells and whistles"?Not sure about the cattle, but you could be on the right lines with country fairs. The Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins (by Julia Cresswell), under the entry on 'Bell', states (p.44): Bells and whistles for attractive but unnecessary extras (...) is an allusion to the bells and whistles of old fairground organs.
More
