Oddly enough, idioms have become such an interesting subject, that many have thoroughly researched their origins. Many idioms have an interesting past that is thought to help people remember the meaning of the idiom. This helps foreigners that are learning English as a second language understand common phrases such as “the rule of thumb”. On www.cracked.com, the rule of thumb’s origin is commonly said to be from an English judge named Sir Francis Buller that passed a law stating it was okay for a man to beat his wife, just not with a stick no wider than his thumb. There isn’t much evidence to actually prove that this law even existed, but the colorful story of men beating their wives with small sticks is more memorable. For a more detailed description of the memorization of idioms based on their origins click here.
Some of the phrases that we use today come from the 18th century and before. On mentalfloss.com, popular phrases such as “cost an arm and a leg”, “big wig”, and “minding your p’s and q’s” are listed with their popular “tall tale” backstory and the actual backstory. For example, “cost an arm and a leg” had thought to have been created around George Washington’s time when there were no cameras and the artists that painted portraits charged by the amount of limbs in the picture. The story seems reasonable enough, but the idea of “giving an arm or leg” actually dates back to the 16th century. On stowminutemen.com there are many phrases and their origins listed but the most popular out of them, in the 18th century or before, are “not playing with a full deck” and “to rake over the coals”. While many 18th century phrases are being used, there is barely any 19th century idioms being used, in fact, many 19th century phrases have died off.
19th century phrases that are unpopular consist of “holey dollar”, “dead man’s hand”, and “dog and pony shows”, these and some more can be found on idiomation.wordpress.com. It can be speculated that the reason the idioms in the 19th century died off is because of is because of the sudden increase in immigration. In chapter 11 of Bill Bryson’s book, The Mother tongue, it is stated that the total immigration between 1607 and 1840 was no more than a million, and then in the second half of the 19th century immigration raised by 30 million. It can be assumed that with the vast amount of immigrants, many phrases simply weren’t used because foreigners probably didn’t understand English well enough to use idioms well enough, and they simply, died off over time.
The time period in which a phrase was created plays a big role in whether or not the phrase is going to become poplar and long lasting. The event behind the creation of the idiom also has a big effect on whether or not an idiom becomes long lasting, because if the story is memorable, the phrase probable is too. If a phrase was created in the 19th century, chances are it’s not being used today. While a phrase that was created in the 18th or 20th century may very well still be in use to this day.