Talk:Skeleton in the closet

Origin

This page gives an interesting origin of the phrase but I do not know whether the site is a reliable source: http://www.onestopenglish.com/community/your-english/phrase-of-the-week/phrase-of-the-week-to-have-a-skeleton-in-the-cupboard/145671.article

As the stated first use is British and has "closet", does any source mention the first use of "cupboard"?

– Fayenatic (talk) 14:06, 14 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Here is another article that has a bit of history about the phrase, [1], but I haven't seen any version with the word 'cupboard' before the 1857. 'The Living Age' Volume 52, Page 120, in 1857. [2]. It seems the word changed from closet to 'cupboard' later on, even Shakespeare seems to use 'closet' more, but he used them both, however not in this phrase. I also heard that the term came from either Mexico or Peru, where they had mummied relatives in a side room that could be opened with a curtin, this would date it to about the 1520's. Shakespeare-online.com says that he used 'closet' as in the biblical way. Oxford dictionary says it is from the 'late Middle English' and 'Old French' meaning 'closed'. But not sure when the word 'cupboard' was introduced, it sounds like, a stand to put cups on, and then the meaning grew from there, according to the Oxford Dictionaries.com "cupboard" - late Middle English (denoting a table or sideboard on which cups, plates, etc. were displayed): from cup + board. (Floppydog66 (talk) 20:37, 15 November 2011 (UTC))[reply]

Leiche im Keller

This is the same as "Leiche im Keller" (corpse in the basement). Just saying. --Itu (talk) 06:30, 3 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Removed the meaningless reference to "Webster's Dictionary"

The introductory (and currently the only) paragraph says of the phrase "skeleton in the closet":

"It is listed in both the Oxford English Dictionary, and Webster's Dictionary, under the word "skeleton"."

But there is no such thing as "Webster's Dictionary" — this refers to virtually any dictionary at all, as is explained at the Wikipedia article on the subject.

This has been true since 1908, when the tradmark "Webster's" entered the public domain — over a hundred years ago.Daqu (talk) 17:10, 15 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]