Todays BWOTD is a nice descriptive phrase:
"He came a right cropper" 'to come a cropper' = a victim of disaster or mishap I have no idea where this comes from for certain. But I wonder if it has it's roots in farming and 'to crop' or cut-off at the base, it would make sense.
Yes, that makes sense.
ReplyDeleteOh, I had forgotten about that one! My all time favourites have to be 'okey dokey' and 'blimey o riley'!!
ReplyDeleteI love it. I think I've heard it before.
ReplyDeletebtw - Our Chicago trip is off, and I am much bummed. My mother in law broke her leg in two places so we are taking care of her. We'll get to Chicago one day and I really enjoyed your posts of your trip.
It's actually named after a Sheriff of Nottingham.... true story! His name was Cropper, and he invented some kind of printing press thing; anyway, when accidents involving that printing press happened, people started to say "come a cropper," referring to invention of Cropper.
ReplyDeleteTHANKS Braja!!
ReplyDeleteNow the question is was that buried in your infinite fountain of knowledge already? Or did you take the time to Google it, unlike moi!! :-)
I looked it up for you, and came up with a different explanation to Braja's. What I found said
ReplyDelete"For the actual derivation we need to consider the nether quarters of a horse - the croup or crupper. In the 18th century, anyone who took a headlong fall from a horse was said to have fallen 'neck and crop'.
'Neck and crop' and 'head over heels' probably both derive from the 16th century term 'neck and heels', which had the same meaning. 'Come a cropper' is just a colloquial way of describing a 'neck and crop' fall."
Who knows which one is right! Perhaps both could be.
Well you learn something new everyday don't you. Thanks for this.
ReplyDelete