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Tag Archives: nature in English language

‘Ups a daisy’

22 Sunday Apr 2018

Posted by sconzani in flowers, nature, wildflowers

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Tags

Bellis perennis, Daisy, daisy expressions, daisy idioms, nature in English language, nature sayings

 

180422 daisy (1)

Nature is so interwoven in our lives that we sometimes don’t stop to think where the everyday expressions we use have come from.

180422 daisy (2)
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‘to be as fresh as a daisy’ – to be keen, enthusiastic and ready to go, after relaxation or a good refreshing sleep. This saying apparently comes from the Old English version of daisy, which was ‘day’s eye’, a reference to the way its petals close at night and reopen afresh the next morning.

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‘Whoops a daisy’ or perhaps ‘oops a daisy’ or ‘ups a daisy’ – it seems there are many spelling variations for this phrase, which was originally used to encourage children to get up off the ground after a fall and is now more generally used as an exclamation following a mistake or accident.

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‘to be pushing up daisies’ – a euphemism for being dead and buried, and thus helping to the fertilise the daisies that grow above the ground in which we lie.

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180422 daisy (9)

 

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sconzani

sconzani

I'm a writer and photographer; researcher and blogger; birder and nature lover; countryside rambler and city strider; volunteer and biodiversity recorder.

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