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- single word requests - What do you call the sound of a bell? - English . . .
The sound of a hand held brass bell, to me, is "ding-a-ling " "Tinkle" would apply at best to a very small bell (and at worst is slang for urinate as I commented above), and "brrring" would apply to the repeated hammering on a bell such as one used to hear telephones or school bells make "Bling" is slang for gaudy jewellery!
- idioms - For whom the bell tolls - origin of ask not instead of . . .
HAGSTRUM: I was rather amused to read that after Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls came out with its quotation from John Donne's Devotions people came to the libraries and wanted the complete works of John Donne Here was one book which influenced another much in the same manner as a movie will influence the sale of the book
- etymology - What caused bell peppers to be called capsicums in some . . .
1707 H Sloane Voy Islands I 241 Bell Pepper The fruit is large somewhat shaped like a bell ("pepper, n " OED Online Oxford University Press, June 2016 Web 24 August 2016 Sense 3 ) Capsicum, on the other hand, is first attested as a botanical term for the plant in 1664, and as a term for the plant's fruit in 1725 ("capsicum, n "
- Where does it comes from pull the other leg, its got bells on?
@Astralbee I was born in Derbyshire in 1949 and I can remember "pull the other one it's got bells on" from the late '50s
- colloquialisms - Words are not sparrows; once they have flown they . . .
The bell, once rung, cannot be unrung or You cannot unring the bell Google books traces "cannot be unrung" to 1924: what is learned or suspected outside of court may have some influence on the judicial decision It may be only a subtle or even subconscious influence, but a bell cannot be unrung Adverse claimants have at least some reason
- How to cite an author who does not capltalize her name if you are . . .
According to the very link you have on CMoS, it says that one must capitalise and advises to re-write Though oddly, while it (correctly) says "E E Cummings" is fine because he didn't lowercase his name himself, and advise rewriting to not begin a sentence with "bell hooks", there's an exception made for "names like eBay"
- etymology - Why do we beat seven bells out of someone? - English . . .
[Apparently originally with allusion to the nautical tradition of sounding ‘eight bells’ to mark a sailor's death (i e sounding the ship's bell eight times, the usual signal for the end of a watch; hence ‘seven bells’ would carry the implication ‘almost to death’ ] a
- A figure of speech to illustrate the irreversibility of an action
Personally I like "You can't unring that bell" as deadrat mentioned above The phrase refers to the fact that you can't un-hear a bell that has been rung There's a nice essay about its history here: Unring the Bell (impossibility of taking back a statement or action)
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