Phrase guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
noun
A well-worn story.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: idiomatic
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: old saw, byword, saying, adage, saw, proverb, maxim, apothegm, apophthegm, dictum, gnome, gnomic saying, mantra, paroemia
Antonyms: none provided
History
Originally as chestnut, with “old” for emphasis. Popularized US 1880s, particularly Northeast and Midwest, with various theories propounded. Also credited to viking tales about when they first came to England and saw forests full of chestnut trees, becoming disorientated and walking in circles while citing "We've already walked past that old chestnut" A commonly cited theory, viewed by the Oxford English Dictionary as “plausible” and cited by Brewer’s, is that it was coined by Boston comedic actor William Warren Jr., quoting from 1816 English melodrama The Broken Sword by William Dimond. One of the characters in the play is a boor, and when once recounting a tale mentions a cork tree, which is corrected by the character Pablo as “A chestnut. I have heard you tell the tale these 27 times.” This line was then apparently quoted at a dinner party by Warren in response to a boor there, and proved popular. Note that William Warren Sr. had previously played Pablo on stage, but died in 1832, so the phrase was presumably popularized by the son, William Warren Jr.
