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Bookmark or Share- What does "hell's bells" refer to? - English Language & Usage Stack ...The Phrase Finder is a recommended reference.
- single word requests - What do you call the sound of a bell? - English ...The sound of a hand held brass bell, to me, is "ding-a-ling." "Tinkle" would apply at best to a very small bell (and at worst is slang for urinate as I commented above), and "brrring" would apply to the repeated hammering on a bell such as one used to hear telephones or school bells make. "Bling" is slang for gaudy jewellery!
- 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."
- 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!
- 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.
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