- skip - Brewer’s

Greek Calends

.

Never. To defer anything to the Greek Calends is to defer it sine die. There were no calends in the Greek months. The Romans used to pay rents, taxes, bills, etc., on the calends, and to defer paying them to the “Greek Calends” was virtually to repudiate them. (See Never.)

“Will you speak of your paltry prose doings in my presence, whose great historical poem, in twenty books, with notes in proportion, has been postponed ‘ad Græcas Kalendas?”—Sir W. Scott: The Betrothed (Introduction).

 

previous entry · index · next entry

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

previous entry · index · next entry

Greatest
Greatheart (Mr.)
Greaves (Sir Launcelot)
Grebenski Cossacks
Grecian Bend (The)
Grecian Coffee-house
Grecian Stairs
Greedy (Justice)
Greegrees
Greek (The)
Greek Calends
Greek Church
Greek Commentator
Greek Cross
Greek Fire
Greek Gift (A)
Greek Life
Greek Trust
Greeks
Green
Green Bag

Linking here:

Calends
Queen Dick