Talk:fly off the handle
Latest comment: 11 years ago by Gronky in topic Etymology: axe head flying off the handle?
Shouldn't the present tense be "flies" off the handle rather than "flys?"
- Yes, definitely should. Fixed. Equinox 01:20, 19 February 2009 (UTC)
Etymology: axe head flying off the handle?
[edit]Here's a possible origin for this:
- This is an American phrase and it alludes to the uncontrolled way a loose axe-head flies off from its handle. It is first found in print in Thomas C. Haliburton's The Attaché; or, Sam Slick in England, 1843/4:
- "He flies right off the handle for nothing."