9 Everyday Phrases That Originated From Poetry

9 Everyday Phrases That Originated From Poetry

Think poetry has nothing to do with you? Actually you recite poems all the time through the vocab, expressions, and common idioms you use every day. Chaucer was the original "Twitter" user, Shakespeare the first person with "swagger," and Homer's characters "bit the dust" before anyone Queen had in mind. The etymology of a word - that's the history of its form and meaning - is far more interesting than you might expect.

Though which came first, the idiom or the poem, is often tough to track, there are more than a few that come directly from the poet who coined them. Our day-to-day drawl is crammed with metaphysical verse, Romantic waxings, and classical allusions that make us all poetry fans - whether we know it or not.

Click through for 10 everyday words and phrases that come from poetry!

Riffle inspires reading. If you love books you can't say no. Read more at Riffle.

The Iliad (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) by Homer

Everyday Phrases From Classics

An earlier version of this story stated that the first use of "All that is gold does not glitter" was in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. It is actually in Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice."

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot