"This hurts like the dickens!"
Could somebody please tell me what dickens are? And what do they feel like? I know they apparently hurt a lot, but how does one go about comparing a sprain, bruise, etc. to dickens? And why are there ALWAYS more than one dicken? Where does "dickens" fit in on that pain chart in the hospital ER? You know, "On a scale of 1 - 10, please describe your pain." Is dickens a 7? A 5? Which also leads me to...
"It bled/oozed like a French pig."
When did a French pig became the standard for measuring bodily discharge? Does it HAVE to be French? Does a pig bleed more than a cow? Have you actually stood around to watch a pig get slaughtered? Did your paper cut bleed like a French pig? Wow. It must have hurt like the dickens!
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2 comments:
Oh...the librarian in me just made me go and a look these ones up.
Origin: Dickens in this case is a euphemism for "devil".
Hence the phrase is really "hurts like the devil" which is also a common phrase. Dickens was likely considered more polite than "devil" in Victorian times, and may have been a superstitious alternative.
I've only ever heard "like a stuck pig." and it's to do with the butchering of pigs. So pleasant.
How accruate these are....I don't know. Found them at http://members.aol.com/MorelandC/HaveOriginsData.htm
Here I go to the dictionary for the info, only to be outdone by perpetual chocholic. Sheesh!
dickens
n 1: a word used in exclamations of confusion; "what the devil"; "the deuce with it"; "the dickens you say" [syn: devil, deuce]
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