Give cat for hare and other expressions with historical explanation

The phrases made, popularly known sayings that express a truth based on common sense or experience, are often used to give advice or qualify a situation. However, and although we use them regularly, we do not know the origin of these sayings. In this article we explain the most commonly used phrases:

Be two candles

We can use this phrase made in several ways, but in any of them it refers to the lack of something. It is believed that it can come from the timbas of cards in which the bank had a candle on each side of the table to be able to count the money. Therefore, “leaving it with two candles” would mean being bankrupt and having nothing.

Throw the house out the window

It is said that someone “throws the house out of the window” when succumbing to large expenses, higher than what they used to. The expression stems from the custom that existed in the nineteenth century to literally throw furniture out of the window when someone touched the National Lottery in Spain.

Go punching

When dismissing someone with some disregard or sentencing a discussion that we do not fully agree with, we use “go to hell.” A phrase made dating back to ancient times, where the “freaks” were the embroideries of the nearest part of the sleeve. These ornaments were made by hand with thread; a very delicate work that implies a lot of patience and money.

Like Pedro for his house

When we talk about “walking like Pedro through his house” we mean a person who moves comfortably and not always well received in a place that is not his own. Its origin could go back to the old forgotten sayings that say: “Something goes from Peter to Peter” or “Well Peter is in Rome, even if he doesn't eat”. All of them to indicate that “Pedro” is the name given to any individual to personalize phrases or popular sayings. Peter, in his figurative sense, seems to represent the master of a house, as if it were the relation of the Christian words according to which Saint Peter was the cornerstone or the first stone of the house of God.

Take for a ride

Literature is full of allusions, many of them ironic, about the value of the food offered at the inns and inns. It was so much the discredit of this type of resting places that a kind of “exorcism” became habitual among diners that recited: “If you are a kid, keep fried; if you are a cat, jump to the plate”. And although this never served to demonstrate the true fame of the inn, it gave rise to the expression “give cat for a hare” that we know today.

The third time lucky

What is meant by this proverbial phrase is that the desired end is reached on the third attempt. But its origin is not so clear: some experts find in the criminal law of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in which the death penalty was imposed on the third theft. Others point out that the expression has been taken from “the melee fight” that goes to three falls.