2006-08-07 21:13:00 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Other - Society & Culture
maybe the very first person who went to a dentist said it lol, the other one...I bet it has to do with gambling...maybe the first person to win at gambling was called Steven lol
Now if you would of asked a computer question...I may of known the answer lol
2006-08-10 02:12:41 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hanging on by the skin of your teeth - metaphor, like camel through the eye of a needle, teeth have no skin so its just a phrase to show the extrema of the situation "hanging By nothing" or "hanging by a thread". As for even stevens The OED gives a 1710 example from Jonathan Swift's Journal to Stella: "Now we are even, quoth Stephen, when he gave his wife six blows for one." The article in American Speech claims that Swift was playing on the already existing phrase even-Stephen. It goes on to give several examples from the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries that use the rhyme (but not the phrase) euen/steuen or even/steven. An early example of this rhyme is in Chaucer's Knight's Tale: "It is ful fair a man to bere him evene, / For al day meeteth men at unset stevene." In this example, "even" (set or settled) contrasts with "unset" (unsettled). It seems that the rhyme came first, followed by the actual phrase even-steven.
2006-08-07 21:42:08 · answer #2 · answered by qantasmile 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They probably were local expressions that caught on, going back some seventy years ago. I think they have lost flavor to more modern ones like..."Have a good one" and "That'll learn you".
2006-08-07 21:19:40 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sorry buddy, tried to find out but in vain.
2006-08-07 21:16:38 · answer #4 · answered by Halle 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
they don't seem to make any sense so I'm guessing they came from the bible.
2006-08-07 21:16:35 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋