There is little disagreement that the expression refers to bad things happening as the result of past offensive words or actions. World Wide Words explains that the idea “…goes back to Chaucer, though he expressed it rather differently…writing that curses are like ‘a bird that returns again to his own nest’.” Chickens appeared in a poem by Robert Southey in 1890. He relied on the image of farm chickens “…foraging during the day but coming back to the safety of the hen-house at dusk…” There have been many variations, including “…curses come home to roost, which is in Margret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind.”

The Phrase Finder explains that the expression means there is hope even in the worst of circumstances. There are many examples  in print from the late 1700s. An English theologian and historian named Thomas Fuller used a version of the term in writings dating 1650. It isn’t known whether Fuller originated the expression or whether “…he may have been recording a piece of folk wisdom.”

I admit I was a baffled wondering about the origin of this expression until I read the explanation at a web site for “Historical Origins of English Words and Phrases.” The site explains that the “wash” was used in the 15^th century to describe “…waste liquid or food refuse from a kitchen…” that was used as food for domesticated animals and in particular as swill for pigs. The term evolved from a description for cheap food for pigs to describing cheap, poorly made liquor or “…poorly written manuscripts…” “In modern English, almost anything that is badly done or ridiculous can be equated to this term for barnyard slop. “

I recently read an interview with magician James [The Amazing] Randi. He said: “You know the expression, ‘warts and all?’ Oliver Cromwell, I believe, was supposed to have said that.” I decided to take a look.

“Warts and All” means to show something in its entirety, even its unattractive aspects. Phrase Finder says the saying is attributed to Cromwell as his instructions to Sir Peter Lely, who was painting a portrait of him. However “there doesn’t appear to be any convincing evidence that Cromwell ever used the phrase ‘warts and all’. The first record of a version of that phrase being attributed to him comes from Horace Walpole’s Anecdotes of Painting in England, with some account of the principal artists, 1764… We can only assume he was indulging in a piece of literary speculation.” Somerset Maugham used the same phase and attribution in his 1930 book Cakes and Ale

English for Students reproduces the same origin almost word-for-word as Phrase Finder. I didn’t find any source to dispute this, but it does illustrate one problem with looking for word origins. Many sources are not independent.

Most sayings apply in some instance, even if sayings often contradict each other. A stitch in time may very well save nine, but haste often makes waste. “Lightning never strikes twice in the same place” means an unusual event will not happen twice to the same person or in the same way. Despite this gut-level intuition, unusual events do repeat. One person sometimes wins the big lottery prize for a second time; or take a random selection of twenty-three persons and you’ll find there’s a 50 percent chance that at least two of them celebrate the same birthdate. Who hasn’t been surprised at learning this for the first time?

But lightning frequently strikes over and over in the same place – the Empire State Building is hit an average of 25 times per year, according to a state website, and other sources give higher numbers. Surely, even back in whatever day sayings were created, people noticed the same lone tree or hill top was struck repeatedly.

Accuweather simply lists the saying as a myth. Phrase Finder reports the first written reference “in the United States in ‘The Man in Lower Ten’ by American writer Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876-1958)” but suggests the “old superstition” had been around before then.

Wiktionary explains that this expression originated “…from a French poem Roman de Fauvel, written in the early 1300s; Fauvel was a conniving stallion and the play was a satire on the corruption of social life.” The stallion’s name is from the French word fauve, which means “chestnut, reddish-yellow, or fawn.” There was a medieval belief that such a horse was a symbol of deceit and dishonesty. The expression began as curry Fauvel, which met “flattering the horse.” Fauvel transitioned to favor, and to curry favor refers to seeking “…to gain favor by flattery or attention.”