eyes in the back of one’s head, to have

To be exceptionally alert. This expression dates from Roman times, appearing in Plautus’s play Aulularia (c. 210 B.C.) and cited by Erasmus in his collection of adages. Put slightly differently, it appeared in John Still’s play Gammer Gurton’s Needle (c. 1565): “Take heed of Sim Glovers wife, she hath an eie behind her!” (2.2).

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eye of a needle

See CAMEL THROUGH A  NEEDLE’S  EYE.

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eye for/to the main chance, to have an

To look out for one’s own best interest  or  for  the  opportunity  that  will  be  most  profitable. The  term  is thought to come either from betting in cockfights (main being an obsolete word  for  cockfight)  or  from  a  game  of  chance  called  hazard, in  which  the main  signified  the  number  (anywhere  from  5  to  9)  called  by  the  caster before  the  dice  were  thrown  and  chance  signified  the  second  throw  of  the dice, which  determined  the  total. In  any  event, the  expression  dates  from the  sixteenth  century, was  recorded  by  John  Lyly  and  Shakespeare, among others, and appeared in John Ray’s English Proverbs of 1670.

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eye for an eye, an

Revenge or retribution, repayment in kind. This term comes from Mosaic law as expressed in the books of Exodus and Deuteron- omy  (19:21): “Thine  eye  shall  not  pity, but  life  shall  for  life, eye  for  eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.” The sentiment and wording were  repeated  in  the  Book  of  Leviticus  (24:20)  but  countermanded  in  the Gospel of St. Matthew (5:38–39), which tells us instead to TURN THE  OTHER CHEEK.

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explore every avenue, to

To  investigate  every  conceivable  possibility. Synonymous with LEAVE  NO  STONE  UNTURNED, this expression dates from the early twentieth century. “He explores every avenue which may lead . . . to view his life in its new meaning” (The Saturday Review, 1926).

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explore every avenue, to

To  investigate  every  conceivable  possibility. Synonymous with LEAVE  NO  STONE  UNTURNED, this expression dates from the early twentieth century. “He explores every avenue which may lead . . . to view his life in its new meaning” (The Saturday Review, 1926).

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excuse my French

See PARDON  MY  FRENCH.

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exception proves the rule, the

Although something may not conform to it, the general rule is still valid. This term originated in the 1500s and is con- sidered a proverb. Playwright Thomas Heywood used it in The Rape of Lucrece

(1608), “If the general rule have no exceptions, thou wilt have an empty con- sistory.” However, in  the  1800s  several  scholars  maintained  that “proves” in this phrase actually means “tests” (and not “verifies”). Whichever is intended, the  phrase  is  still  used, as  in “Jane  was  the  only  woman  who  opposed  this measure; well, the exception proves the rule.”

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ex cathedra

With authority like that of the Pope. The expression, Latin words  meaning  “from  the  chair,”  literally  refers  to  the  doctrine  of  papal infallibility, whereby the Pope, in statements on faith and morals, cannot be wrong. It began to be used figuratively in the early nineteenth century. “He was  a  great  lover  of  form,  more  especially  when  he  could  dictate  it  ex cathedra” (Sir Walter Scott, Rob Roy, 1818).

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evil eye, the

The  power  of  being  able  to  inflict  harm  at  a  glance. This age-old   superstition—the   Roman   poet  Vergil   speaks   of   it   bewitching lambs—is in modern times expressed figuratively and sometimes ironically. Edward Bulwer-Lytton used it in The Last Days of Pompeii (1834): “‘He cer- tainly possesses the gift of the evil eye,’ said Clodius of Arbaces the Egypt- ian.” As for a modern jocular example: “Where house plants are concerned, I seem to have the evil eye.”

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every which way

In all directions, as in “The wind scattered the newspa- pers every which way.” An Americanism dating from the 1920s or earlier, it sometimes was put as “every which a ways.” Mark Twain used it in Roughing

It (1872): “He . . . wound on rope all over and about it and under it every which way.”

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everything is copacetic

Things  are  fine, everything  is  going  well. The adjective copacetic, for excellent, dates from the early 1900s (the OED’s ear- liest citation is from 1919), but its origin has been lost.

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every Tom, Dick, and Harry

Everyone, including those of low social sta- tus; the common herd. Although this term dates, in slightly different form, from Shakespeare’s time (he used Tom, Dick, and Francis in Henry IV, Part 1,

[2.4]), the  names  that  survived  into  clichédom  come  from  the  early  nine- teenth  century,  when  they  were  quite  popular.  One  of  the  earliest  refer- ences in print is from the Farmer’s Almanack of 1815, although there it may have  literally  meant  three  specific  individuals  (“He  hired Tom,  Dick,  and Harry, and  at  it  they  all  went”). John Adams  used  it  (1818)  in  its  present meaning:  “Tom,  Dick,  and  Harry  were  not  to  censure  them”—in  other words, not just anybody had the right to censure them.

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