Phrase-Heads From Way Back: Phrases.org.uk

PithArtist

“He rang’d his tropes and preach’d up patience;
Back’d his opinion with quotations.”

- Matthew Prior 1664-1721

Here at CTP we make it our goal to build the largest database of quips ever amassed in the history of snappy rejoinders.  The best way to get a big number is to let a big crowd — that’s you — add to the database.

In the distant past, collections of phrases were heavily researched and attributed to their originators by English professor-types.  This didn’t avoid errors and controversy, but it did give rise to common attributions of well-known phrases that became generally accepted by writers of English.

As the web began to grow, online compilations of phrases and research began to appear.  One of our favorites was started in 1997 by Gary Martin: Phrases.org.uk.  If you’ve never checked out this terrific archive of phraseology and discussion you should.  It contains archives of the email discussion list started prior to ‘97 by the earliest generations online phrase-heads, an aweesome writer’s resource called The Phrase Thesaurus and much more.  Cool stuff.