About IdiomJar
IdiomJar is a small blog about where English phrases actually come from. We started it in 2026 after one too many arguments that ended with somebody confidently repeating a "fact" they'd read in a forwarded email fifteen years earlier.
How this started
The specific argument was about "rule of thumb." Someone at the table explained the old law about the thickness of sticks; someone else said that wasn't true; nobody could settle it. So we went looking — and found that not only was the law fictional, but the real origin had a dated citation from 1685 sitting in plain sight, ignored because it was boring.
That gap turned out to be the whole project. English is stuffed with phrases whose popular origin stories are inventions, and whose true origins are usually well documented but unexciting. Somebody should be writing the boring true versions down in a readable way. Here we are.
Who writes this
IdiomJar is written by a small team of enthusiasts — people who read dictionaries for fun, not credentialed linguists or historians. We want to be clear about that, because credibility here should come from our sources, not from claims about ourselves.
What we do have is method: we read the reference works, chase the earliest dated citations, follow the arguments between researchers, and tell you plainly when the evidence runs out. Every post carries the same byline — the IdiomJar team — because the research approach is consistent regardless of who drafted a given piece.
How we research every post
The rule that governs the whole site: the earliest dated citation beats the best story, every time. A vivid explanation with no date attached tells you about folklore, not etymology. So each post starts by asking what the oldest printed use is and what it meant there — then works forward.
What we read
- Historical dictionaries — the Oxford English Dictionary for dated quotations, Etymonline for word histories.
- Phrase specialists — the Phrase Finder, plus published work by etymologists who track citations.
- Digitized newspaper archives — including the free Chronicling America collection, which has rewritten several origin stories in the last two decades.
- Period sources — slang dictionaries like Grose (1785), plays, and contemporary reporting, quoted directly wherever we can.
- Fact-checking references — including Snopes for the chain-email era of invented origins.
Our grading system
Not every origin deserves the same confidence, so we label them rather than flattening everything into "comes from." You'll see these four grades throughout the site:
How we label an origin
- Documented — there's a dated citation and the meaning lines up. Example: deadline.
- Likely — the best-supported explanation, widely accepted, but without a source that spells out the link. Example: mad as a hatter.
- Unsolved — the record genuinely doesn't tell us, and we say so instead of picking a favourite. Example: the whole nine yards.
- Folklore — a popular story with no evidence behind it, clearly labelled as such. Example: rule of thumb.
What you can expect from us
The house rules
- We name our sources. If we can't point to a reference, we tell you we're speculating.
- We say "unknown" out loud. A shrug with citations is a legitimate answer, and often the most interesting one.
- We correct ourselves. Etymology moves as archives digitize. If we get something wrong, write to us and we'll update the post and note the change.
- We don't invent credentials. No fake degrees, no borrowed authority, no "as featured in" claims.
- We keep folklore labelled. The fake stories are fascinating cultural artifacts — they just belong on a clearly marked shelf.
Who this is for
Curious people, mostly. Readers who like knowing why they say what they say; parents fielding questions from small literalists; writers and teachers who need a phrase's history to be right; and anyone who has ever been suspicious of an origin story that sounded a little too satisfying.
New here? How Idioms Are Born (and Die) is the best starting point — it explains the whole system the rest of the site applies. After that, pick a shelf below.
Questions, corrections, or a phrase you want us to dig into? The contact page is right there, and we read everything.
One phrase, once a week
Every Friday we pull one idiom out of the jar and email you its real story — under two minutes of reading. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
We respect your privacy. Privacy Policy.