A nest egg is “a fund of money accumulated as a reserve,” often set aside for long periods of time and invested so it grows along the way. This fund can be feathered with high-yield savings accounts, retirement accounts, and certificates of deposit, all of which go toward helping people achieve long-term financial goals. But before “nest egg” related to personal finances, it had a more literal meaning in the context of poultry farms.

The original definition for “nest egg” was “a natural or artificial egg left in a nest especially to induce a hen to continue to lay there.” This is a farming technique that dates back to the 14th century. Farmers would place decoy eggs in nests to attract hens, thereby encouraging them to efficiently produce more plentiful amounts of eggs.

By 1686, the meaning of “nest egg” had evolved to be used in the financial context that we so closely associate it with today. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, an early citation is found in correspondence between philosopher John Locke and his friend Edward Clarke. The letter read, “The rest, I perceive, he is not trouble should remain as a nest egg till a farther occasion,” referring to an amount of money that shouldn’t be touched until a further date. It’s worth noting that this letter wasn’t widely published until 1927, so it probably didn’t play much of a role in popularizing the phrase. However, it still serves as early evidence of the phrase being used in its monetary context.

How the phrase evolved from decoy eggs to retirement accounts isn’t entirely certain, but there’s a natural connection between the former and the latter. Placing decoy eggs in a nest could lead to bountiful gains down the line, which is exactly what people hope happens when they put money into their 401(k)s.

The term “bee’s knees” raises two questions: Do bees even have knees? And where the heck did this phrase originate? To answer the first question, bees do have jointed legs, though to call those joints “knees” isn’t exactly correct. But biology has never stood in the way of a good rhyme, which may help explain the phrase in question. Today, it’s defined by Merriam-Webster as “an excellent or much liked person or thing.” But it originally meant something very different when first used during the 17th century.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, early uses of “bee’s knees” implied something small, insignificant, or essentially nonexistent — much like the so-called knees of an actual bee. This remained the prevailing definition until 1920, when “bee’s knees” took on the more positive connotation we now associate with the phrase. But if you’re hoping for a simple explanation as to why, we don’t exactly have one.

One theory posited by entomologist Richard Jones is that “bee’s knees” took inspiration from the talented legs of dancer Bee Jackson, who helped popularize the Charleston dance craze in the 1920s. But linguist Gary Martin suggests that its origins are simpler, and that people more likely adapted it because of its jaunty, rhyming nature.

In addition to “bee’s knees,” there are several other animal-themed phrases that were coined in the 1920s to describe something excellent:  “flea’s eyebrows,” “cat’s pajamas,” and “canary’s tusks,” just to name a few. These all appear to be nonsensical, leading us to believe there wasn’t true logic behind the shift in “bee’s knees,” but it was a fun thing to say.

There are many ways in which people feign ignorance. Someone might close their eyes, stick their fingers in their ears, and shout, “La la la!” until the problem disappears. Another will merely turn their head and walk away. In either case, the person is metaphorically turning a blind eye.

To turn a blind eye means “to refuse to see; be oblivious.” It’s essentially pretending like you have no clue what’s happening, even when the issue is overt. The expression is based on the premise that if you’re blind and can’t see, you can feign ignorance and act unaware of what’s going on. Some people credit the saying to a popular figure from British military history, and while he may have played a role in popularizing it, he didn’t coin it.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest evidence of “blind eye” appears in a 1698 collection of religious essays by author John Norris: “To turn the deaf Ear, and the blind Eye to all those Pomps and Vanities of the World which we renounc’d at our Baptism.” The phrase “to turn a deaf ear” specifically means “to refuse to listen.”

Many of the earliest examples paired “blind eye” with “deaf ear”; it wasn’t until the 19th century that “blind eye” was largely used on its own. 

That brings us to British naval commander Horatio Nelson, to whom many credit this saying, for very literal reasons. While he didn’t coin the phrase, his purported actions helped popularize it. During the 1801 Battle of Copenhagen, Nelson — who claimed to be blind in one eye — wanted to press on, so he acted as if he couldn’t see a signal telling his troops to disengage. An 1809 biography claimed he said, “I have only one eye — and I have a right to be blind sometimes… I really do not see the signal.” 

However, the plot thickens from there: Nelson had indeed lost an arm and sustained injuries to an eye in an earlier battle, but he apparently regained complete use of that eye. Claiming a blind eye was likely just an excuse to ignore his commanding officer’s orders. In any case, he did go on to win the Battle of Copenhagen, and the anecdote helped to further popularize the phrase “turning a blind eye.”

An idiom is a common turn of phrase that has a metaphorical meaning different from the individual definitions of each of the words. For example, someone with a bleeding heart is not suffering a medical emergency, and actors aren’t actually wishing for their fellow cast members to break a leg. 

The magic of idioms is in their ability to compress a story into just a few words, and some of the most vivid such expressions in English are tied to names — of legendary heroes, historical figures, religious characters, and fictional creations. These names act as shorthand, instantly evoking a trait, situation, or outcome without needing much explanation.

What makes these idioms especially interesting is how their original stories are often far richer, or even quite different, than their modern usages suggest. Over time, details get simplified, lessons get blurred, and what remains is a memorable phrase. The following examples highlight how some name-based idioms came to be, and the surprising origins behind the expressions we still use today.

This idiom, using the name of the ancient Greek hero Achilles, refers to a weakness or vulnerable point. In Greek myth, Achilles’ mother, Thetis, dipped her infant son into the River Styx to make him immortal, holding him by the heel, which remained dry. During the Trojan War, he was killed when struck by a poisoned arrow in that vulnerable spot.

When someone mentions an Annie Oakley, they might be talking about a free ticket or pass — as in “I got an Annie Oakley for the festival.” Phoebe Anne Oakley Moses (1860-1926) was a featured performer in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. She had the uncanny skill of shooting the spots out of playing cards. Those punched cards were similar to tickets that train conductors punched — proof of payment. And so, an Annie Oakley is a free ticket or pass. 

Greek myths are rife with idiomatic fodder, including this one, which describes being trapped between two equally difficult, even dangerous, choices. In Greek myth, Scylla was a monster living on one side of a narrow strait, and Charybdis was a whirlpool on the other side. To avoid Charybdis, sailors navigated closer to Scylla, who had an unquenchable appetite for devouring sailors. This myth is based on the narrow Strait of Messina between Italy and Sicily.

Call someone a doubting Thomas, and you’re saying they’re a skeptic. In the Book of John, the Apostle Thomas doubted the story of Jesus’ resurrection until he had proof. According to the New Testament, not until Thomas saw Jesus in the flesh, after his resurrection, were his doubts eliminated.

Invoke the name of Pete when you need to express frustration or annoyance. To avoid blasphemy, this substitute for “for Christ’s sake” evolved as a euphemism, alongside the similar idioms “for the love of Pete” and “in the name of Pete.” These idioms refer to St. Peter, one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus, according to the New Testament.

The 2026 space movie Project Hail Mary demonstrates the meaning of this idiom as a desperate, last-minute attempt that is probably unlikely to succeed. In the context of football, the term “Hail Mary pass” was coined by Notre Dame players in their 1922 win over Georgia Tech. Lineman Noble Kizer recited the Hail Mary prayer (to the Virgin Mary, asking for her intercession during a time of need) in the huddle before scoring two touchdowns. The idiom was further popularized in 1975, when Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach used it to describe his desperate 50-yard pass with only 32 seconds remaining in the game, which gave the Cowboys a 17-14 win over the Minnesota Vikings.

Use this idiom to describe any extremely difficult endeavor. According to Greek myth, Hercules was required to perform 12 superhuman tasks to atone for killing his family. These included cleaning the Augean Stables, uncleaned in 30 years; slaying a monstrous lion with impenetrable fur and razor-sharp claws; slaying the Lernaean Hydra, a fearsome multiheaded venomous monster; and capturing Cerberus, a multiheaded vicious dog.

A lawyer might ask you to put your John Hancock on the dotted line, which is another way of requesting your signature. John Hancock (1736-1793) was the first person to sign the Declaration of Independence, doing so in large, bold handwriting. “There, John Bull [Britain] can read my name without spectacles,” he said. “Now let him double the price on my head, for this is my defiance.” Britain never did offer a bounty on Hancock, but his patriotic gesture gave rise to this idiom.

Those with an uncanny ability to make money are said to have the Midas touch. Midas, a real eighth-century BCE king of Phrygia (now Turkey) has been immortalized in myth. As the story goes, he was very kind to Silenus, a satyr who was a companion of Dionysus, god of wine. As a reward, Dionysus granted Midas one wish. The king’s wish was to have the power to turn anything he touched into gold. It seemed like a great idea, until Midas realized, to his horror, that his wish had been taken literally: Every single thing he touched, including his food, drink, and even his daughter, did turn into gold. Realizing his mistake, Midas asked Dionysus to reverse the gift, and he did so — but that lesson is lost in this idiom.

Murphy’s law promises that anything that can go wrong will go wrong — or at least it seems that way on a bad day. Edward Murphy was a U.S. Air Force captain and aeronautical engineer. In 1949, he worked as a lead scientist on a project to test human endurance against extreme deceleration, as in high-speed emergency aircraft ejections. Those tests worked only if accelerometer sensors were installed correctly. In one test, they were mistakenly installed incorrectly. This idiom comes from that experience when it seemed like nothing could go right.

Someone opening Pandora’s box — perhaps by bringing up a touchy subject or taking a seemingly innocent action with unforeseen consequences — is unleashing a whole host of potential problems. According to myth, Pandora, the first mortal woman, was married to Epimetheus, Titan brother of Prometheus. He gave her a large jar (not a box), with explicit instructions not to open it. Intrigued, Pandora opened the jar anyway, releasing the world’s evils. The last thing released, though, was hope. The lesson, lost in this idiom, is that even in hardship, hope can carry us through the worst of times.

A Sadie Hawkins dance is an old-fashioned tradition where girls would ask boys to a dance (instead of the other way around). The expression can be traced back to cartoonist Al Capp, who started his “Li’l Abner” comic strip, set in the fictional Appalachian town of Dogpatch, Kentucky, in 1934. In 1937, Capp created a town race so that Sadie Hawkins (“the homeliest gal in all them hills”) could marry. In that race, men got a head start, but any man Sadie caught before sundown had to marry her. This popular story is the basis for the Sadie Hawkins dance.