Thursday 25 July 2013

Enough blue sky to make a Dutchmans shorts

Dutchman's breeches


I heard this on 567 Cape Talk radio a few weeks back, I have heard it before but why the term?

Roy

Marilyn Kloss wrote:

"The clouds will clear when there is enough blue sky to make a Dutchman a pair of pants." My mother (born in 1913 in northern New Hampshire) has been saying this all my life, and she learned it from her mother (from Nova Scotia by way of Lowell, Massachusetts). Recently an aunt by marriage (from Waterbury, Vermont) mentioned the same expression (with the variation of "britches") and said that she had learned it from her mother. Yesterday I was with some friends (about 60 years old) from Liverpool, England, who know the same expression, but the variations are that it is an "Irishman" and his "trousers." Where did this expression come from?

Read more here:

http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=20000712