Why Do We Say That?
Everybody's got a price for the piper
My son really likes word games, double entendres and idioms. So I bought him a book called Why Do We Say That? by Scott Matthews.
Idioms include “to turn a blind eye,” “big wig,” “break a leg,” and many others. It gives an historical reference for how these came about. It’s a lot of fun and we are enjoying it.
So when I had one haunting me today, I turned to the book . . . and this one was not there. “Paying the piper.” Remember yesterday when I had no meetings in the afternoon and an opportunity to take a 60 minute nap? Funny enough, they all landed today. Who would’ve thunk it? And today, boy did I pay the piper.
So that’s how my day went. To redeem it, I figured I’d add a piece of knowledge to my life.
Courtesy of Danielle McLoed at the Grammarist:
The phrase comes from the fable of the Pied Piper of Hamelin . . . A piper was hired to clear out the rats from the village of Hamelin (pied refers to the black and white coloring of the magpie, a common black-and-white bird of the crow family). After he did so by playing a song and learning them away, he was not paid for his work. His revenge for the lack of payment was to steal all the town’s children. The moral of the story was to pay the piper and keep up your half of the bargain lest you lose what is important to you.