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Previous Thread Next Thread Print Thread Saved by the Bell ? #62984 03/30/2002 3:23 AM Joined: Mar 2002 Posts: 6 Upstate NY indianaugust stranger indianaugust stranger Joined: Mar 2002 Posts: 6 Upstate NY Ever since I became a member here, I have been spending too much time on the web !! Since it is such a "fantabulous" discussion group, I was wondering why haven't been there any discussions of phrases, idioms etc ? A friend of mine who is also fascinated by word origins told me this crazy story about the origin of "saved by the bell" ... ....When our ancestors realized that they were burying a great deal of people before their time had actually come, they came up with a solution. They tied a string onto the "dead" person's hand, buried them, and tied the other end of the string to a bell and then tied it to nearby tree branch. If the person revived enough to ring the bell, their survivors would rush out and dig them up. Hence... "saved by the bell" Are there any good websites where I could look up these phrases ? Does anyone else have stories about the origins of such commonplace sayings ? P.S. I finally figured out what the "Title" (Stranger, pooh-bah , carpal tunnel ) meant !! I was completely "discombobulated"! ;) Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Saved by the Bell ? #62985 03/30/2002 3:38 AM Joined: Apr 2000 Posts: 10,542 this too shall pass tsuwm Carpal Tunnel tsuwm Carpal Tunnel Joined: Apr 2000 Posts: 10,542 this too shall pass >I was wondering why haven't been there any discussions of phrases, idioms etc ? actually®, there have been a great many such, but as there is no specific category for them, just try to find them! there are lots of sites that cover these (just as there seem to be lots of sites for everything) and some good ones like "Word Detective" and Quinion. but when you don't know where to start, the best ploy is to plug the phrase (in quotes) plus the word 'origin' into google.com -- try it with "saved by the bell" and see what you get. btw, you prolly won't like what Quinion has to say about this phrase -- in a word, he says this story is "hogwash". :-D http://www.quinion.com/words/qa/qa-sav1.htm (post no bills) Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Saved by the Bell ? #62986 03/30/2002 5:03 AM Joined: Mar 2001 Posts: 4,189 Rio Grande, Cape May County, N... WhitmanO'Neill Carpal Tunnel WhitmanO'Neill Carpal Tunnel Joined: Mar 2001 Posts: 4,189 Rio Grande, Cape May County, N... Hi indianaugust! Welcome to our energetic little wordcrew here! And thanks for the great threads! Dead ringer is a saying that claims the same story as its tale of origin. But the true source of this can be traced back to horse racing. Saved by the bell actually is naturally, and very simply, taken from boxing. If a guy was getting hurt, and the round ended, he was "saved by the bell." Here's an intriguing article by Richard Lederer called Spook Entymologytsuwm, you'll like this one! that explores the origins of each of these (at the bottom of the article) and many others. An enjoyable read. The "lead-mug and beer" coma that supposedly gave rise to the custom of holding a wake is also debunked there's that word again in lieu of a true linguistic etymology. http://pw1.netcom.com/~rlederer/arcwdcr2.htm Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Saved by the Bell and other fallacies #62987 03/30/2002 8:19 PM Joined: Aug 2001 Posts: 11,074 Likes: 2 Worcester, MA wofahulicodoc Carpal Tunnel wofahulicodoc Carpal Tunnel Joined: Aug 2001 Posts: 11,074 Likes: 2 Worcester, MA ...and in http://www.snopes.com/language/phrases/1500.htm One is almost disapointed to find that they're not true - that's how appealing they are :-) ! Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Buried Alive! (a poem + whole story) #62988 03/30/2002 8:52 PM Joined: Mar 2001 Posts: 4,189 Rio Grande, Cape May County, N... WhitmanO'Neill Carpal Tunnel WhitmanO'Neill Carpal Tunnel Joined: Mar 2001 Posts: 4,189 Rio Grande, Cape May County, N... http://www.snopes.com/horrors/gruesome/buried.htm Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Moderated by  Jackie  Hop To General Topics ------  Information and announcements  Q&A about words  Wordplay and fun  Words and languages in schools  Miscellany  Weekly Themes  Looking for (writers, speakers,... (Old) Weekly themes. 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