Chapter Old As Methuselah to Ollapod of O by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Old As Methuselah to Ollapod

Old As Methuselah Of great age. Methuselah was the oldest man that ever lived. (See above.)

Old as the Hills “Old as Panton Gates.” (See Panton Gates .)

Old Age Restored to Youth “La fontaine de Jouvence fit rejovenir la gent.” The broth of Medea did the same. Grinding old men young. Ogier's Ring (q.v.) restored the aged to youth again. The Dancing Water restores the aged woman to youth and beauty. (See Water. )

Old Dogs will not Learn New Tricks In Latin, “Senex psittacus negligit ferulam” (An old parrot does not mind the stick). When persons are old they do not readily fall into new ways.

Old Lady of Threadneedle Street The Bank of England, situated in Threadneedle Street. So called from a caricature by Gilray, dated 22nd May, 1797, and entitled The Old Lady in Threadneedle Street in Danger. It referred to the temporary stopping of cash payments 26th February, 1797, and one pound bank-notes were issued 4th March the same year.

Old Man Eloquent Isocrates; so called by Milton. When he heard of the result of the battle of Chæronea, which was fatal to Grecian liberty, he died of grief.

“That dishonest victory
At Chæronea, fatal to liberty.
Killed with report that Old Man Eloquent.”
Milton: Sonnets.

Old Man of the Moon (The). The Chinese deity who links in wedlock predestined couples. (See Man In The Moon .)

“The Chinese have a firm belief in marriages being made in heaven. A certain deity, whom they call the `Old Man of the Moon,' links with a silken cord all predestined couples.”- J. N. Jordan: Modern China (Nineteenth Century, July, 1886, p. 45).

Old Man of the Mountain Hassan-ben-Sabah, the sheik Al Jebal, and founder of the sect called Assassins (q.v.).

Old Man of the Sea In the story of Sinbad the Sailor, the Old Man of the Sea, hoisted on the shoulders of Sinbad, clung there and refused to dismount. Sinbad released himself from his burden by making the Old Man drunk. (Arabian Nights.)

Oldbuck An antiquary; from the character of Jonathan Oldbuck, a whimsical virtuoso in Sir Walter Scott's Antiquary.

Oldcastle (Sir John), called the Good Lord Cobham, the first Christian martyr among the English nobility (December 14th, 1417).

Oldenburg Horn A horn long in the possession of the reigning princes of the House of Oldenburg, but now in the collection of the King of Denmark. According to tradition, Count Otto of Oldenburg, in 967, was offered drink in this silver-gilt horn by a “wild woman,” at the Osenborg. As he did not like the look of the liquor, he threw it away, and rode off with the horn.

Oldest Nation and most ancient of all languages. Psammetichus of Egypt, wishing to penetrate these secrets, commanded that two infants should be brought up in such seclusion that they should never hear a single word uttered. When they had been thus secluded for two years, the boys both cried out to the keeper, “Becos! Becos!” a Phrygian word for Bread, so Psammetichus declared the Phrygian language to be man's primitive speech. (See Language. )

O'leum Adde Camino To pour oil on fire; to aggravate a wound under pretence of healing it. (Horace: Satires, ii. 3, 321.)