When Did We Start “Breaking the Ice”?
An idiom, by definition, is a phrase in which the overall meaning is understood separately from the individual meanings of the words. Some idioms are so ingrained in our collective vocabulary that we never think about what the true meanings are. Consider the idiom “break the ice.” This expression — meaning
“to say or do something to relieve tension” — might seem like a modern invention designed for cocktail parties or business meetings, but it actually has roots in the Italian Renaissance. For the origin of this well-loved idiom, we look to Desiderius Erasmus, a 15th-century Dutch theologian. Erasmus recorded a...
