A Word In Your Shell-Like. Nigel Rees

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СКАЧАТЬ In that case, the original reference may have been to the speed of beheading with an axe – as discussed in The Observer (24 April 1988).

      (it) beggars all description A light literary turn of phrase for what is indescribable and originating with the meaning of the verb ‘to beggar’ in the sense ‘to exhaust the resources of’. Apparently this was an original coinage of Shakespeare in Antony and Cleopatra, II.ii.197 (1607), where Enobarbus says of Cleopatra: ‘For her own person, / It beggar’d all description’. ‘Let us begin the tale in 1755 when an entranced visitor to the park [Painshill] wrote: “Pray follow me to Mr Hamilton’s. I must tell you it beggars all description, the art of hiding art is here in such sweet perfection”’ – Financial Times (23 April 1988); ‘A place which beggars all description’ – Mrs Piozzi, Observations and Reflections Made in the Course of a Journey Through France &c. (1789); ‘Of the massacre itself that followed, where shall I begin and what shall I tell? It simply beggars all description. Occidentals of the 19th century cannot comprehend it. Still, I will try to give a few facts’ – The Times (29 March 1895).

      be good – and if you can’t be good be careful! A nudging farewell, possibly originating with the American song ‘Be Good! If You Can’t Be Good, Be Careful!’ (1907). It is the same sort of farewell remark as don’t do anything I wouldn’t do! that probably dates from the same period.

      be good but not so frightfully good that someone says to you, ‘Ah, and now what mischief are you up to?’ A rather extended catchphrase. On the BBC radio Children’s Hour by 1932 and into the early 1940s, there was a man called Commander Stephen King Hall who gave talks in an unhurried, avuncular voice, explaining current events (of which there were quite a few in those days) to his young listeners. And at the end he would sign off in this characteristic way. On 17 February 1941, after talking about the progress of the war, he ended: ‘And now I think I’ll give you a saying which some of you will know: Be Good but not so frightfully good that someone at once says, “Mmm, and now what mischief are you up to?” Well, goodbye and good luck.’

      be good to yourself Sign-off from Don McNeill, homely American radio star, on the air 1934–68.

      (to) beg the question Nowadays an expression frequently misused in place of ‘to pose a question’. For example, ‘I had a ghastly holiday in France which begs the question of why I went there in the first place.’ The phrase (in English by 1581) really means ‘to take for granted the matter in dispute, to assume without proof.’ Or, more precisely, ‘to take into consideration as part of your proof the thing you are trying to prove’. The process is apparent from these two exchanges: ‘Q. Why do parallel lines never meet?’ ‘A. Because they are parallel.’ ‘Q. Why do you think police series on TV are so popular?’ ‘A. Because people like them.’ H. W. Fowler in Modern Engish Usage (1965 Gowers’ edn) relates the matter to petitio principii – ‘the fallacy of founding a conclusion on the basis that as much needs to be proved as the conclusion itself’ and includes under ‘Misapprehensions’ that ‘to beg a question is to avoid giving a straight answer.’

      behind See ALL BEHIND.

      behind closed doors Secretively, out of sight. There was a novel entitled Behind Closed Doors (1888) by A. K. Kreen, but the phrase does not seem to have caught on until the 1920s. Washington: Behind Closed Doors was the title of a fictional TV series about presidential politics (US 1977–8) – based on the Watergate affair; ‘Strange goings-on behind the closed doors of that exotic building just off Great Queen Street, Covent Garden…Freemasons’ Hall they call it, a secret world, a world of secrets’ – The Independent (19 May 1995); ‘This unique and fascinating tour uncovers a Venice normally hidden behind closed doors’ – Ultimate Travel Company brochure (January 2003).

      behind every—man stands a—woman A much used, unascribed format that is probably most often encountered nowadays in parodied versions. Working backwards, here are some of the parodies: ‘Behind every good man is a good woman – I mean an exhausted one’ – the Duchess of York, speech, September 1987. ‘As usual there’s a great woman behind every idiot’ – John Lennon (quoted 1979). ‘Behind every successful man you’ll find a woman who has nothing to wear’ – L. Grant Glickman (quoted 1977) or James Stewart (quoted 1979). ‘We in the industry know that behind every successful screenwriter stands a woman. And behind her stands his wife’ – Groucho Marx (quoted 1977). ‘The road to success is filled with women pushing their husbands along’ – Lord (Thomas R.) Dewar, quoted in Stevenson, The Home Book of Quotations (1967). ‘And behind every man who is a failure there’s a woman, too!’ – John Ruge, cartoon caption, Playboy (March 1967). ‘Behind every successful man stands a surprised mother-in-law’ – Hubert Humphrey, speech (1964). An early example of the original expression occurs in an interview with Lady Dorothy Macmillan, wife of the then just retired British Prime Minister (7 December 1963). In the Daily Sketch, Godfrey Winn concluded his piece with the typical sentiment (his capitals): ‘NO MAN SUCCEEDS WITHOUT A GOOD WOMAN BEHIND HIM. WIFE OR MOTHER. IF IT IS BOTH, HE IS TWICE BLESSED INDEED.’ The Evening Standard (London) (18 April 1961) carried an advertisement showing a spaceman (Yuri Gargarin was in the news at that time) drifting off into space with the slogan, ‘Behind every great man there’s a bottle of Green Shield’ (Worthington beer). In the film The Country Girl (US 1954), William Holden spoke the lines: ‘That’s what my ex-wife used to keep reminding me of, tearfully. She had a theory that behind every great man there was a great woman.’ In Love All, a little known play by Dorothy L. Sayers, that opened at the Torch Theatre, Knightsbridge, London, on 9 April 1940 and closed before the end of the month, was this: ‘Every great man has a woman behind him…And every great woman has some man or other in front of her, tripping her up.’ Even earlier, Sayers herself referred to it as an ‘old saying’ in Gaudy Night, Chap. 3 (1935). Harriet Vane is talking to herself, musing on the problems of the great woman who must either die unwed or find a still greater man to marry her: ‘Wherever you find a great man, you will find a great mother or a great wife standing behind him – or so they used to say. It would be interesting to know how many great women have had great fathers and husbands behind them.’

      behind me See GET THEE.

      behind you See OH NO THERE ISN’T.

      being for the benefit of—A standard 19th-century phrase used in advertising for ‘testimonial’ performances. The title of Chapter 48 of Nicholas Nickleby (1838–9) by Charles Dickens is: ‘Being for the benefit of Mr Vincent Crummles, and Positively his last Appearance on this Stage.’ ‘Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite’ is the title of a track on the Beatles’ Segeant Pepper album (1967). The lyric, largely written by John Lennon, though credited jointly to him and Paul McCartney, derive almost word for word, as Lennon acknowledged, from the wording of a Victorian circus poster dated 1843 and in his possession.

      belfry See BATS IN THE.

      Belgium See IF IT’S TUESDAY.

      believe it or not! This exclamation was used as the title of a long-running syndicated newspaper feature, and radio and TV series, in the USA. Robert Leroy Ripley (1893–1949) created and illustrated a comic strip, Ripley’s Believe It or Not (circa 1923), but citations for the phrase before this are lacking.

      believe only half of what you see and nothing that you hear Mencken (1942) finds an early quotation of this proverbial saying in A Woman’s Thoughts by Dinah Mulock Craik (1858) where it is described as a ‘cynical saying, and yet less bitter than at first appears’. As such, it builds upon the simpler ‘Don’t СКАЧАТЬ