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ORIGIN:
The governor fiddled while Rome burned, doing nothing about crime, poverty, and pollution. The Roman historian Suetonius tells how in AD 64 the Emperor Nero instigated the burning of Rome, then sat watching the spectacle from a high tower and played his lyre (fiddle).
filthy lucre презренный металл M E A N I N G : money Inside that safe there were packets of lovely, filthy lucre. ORIGIN: This biblical phrase is St Paul’s term for money gained dishonestly. In Timothy (3:5) he lists the qualities needed in a bishop: not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre. finders keepers (losers weepers) что (с воза) упало, то пропало M E A N I N G : whoever finds something has the right to keep it: said when someone, especially a child, finds something by chance Finders keepers, I don’t have to give the pen back, do I, Mum? ORIGIN: It originates from the children’s rhyming slang. fine kettle of fish хорошенькое дело M E A N I N G : a difficult situation; a mess That’s a fine kettle of fish – the car won’t start and I have to leave in five minutes. ORIGIN: This refers to a Scottish border custom of setting up a picnic, complete with fish kettle (a container for cooking fish), by a salmon river so that the catch could be cooked on the spot. Presumably these were hectic noisy affairs which soon became connected with confusion.
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