Origin of Name
The phrase 'The End is Nigh' derives from a man who could often be seen walking up and down London's Oxford Street wearing a sandwich board, or carrying a placard on a pole, bearing the phrase. The main meaning was purely religious - he was warning of the 'impending' Christian vision of Apocalypse - but the phrase has since entered the popular consciousness as a slightly derogatory term for someone or something warning of impending doom. However, a smaller board attached to the main one included the cryptic words 'And Sitting'. (Could this relate to the need to remain vigilant against the Day of Judgment?)
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Famous quotes containing the words origin of and/or origin:
“For, though the origin of most of our words is forgotten, each word was at first a stroke of genius, and obtained currency, because for the moment it symbolized the world to the first speaker and to the hearer. The etymologist finds the deadest word to have been once a brilliant picture.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Good resolutions are useless attempts to interfere with scientific laws. Their origin is pure vanity. Their result is absolutely nil. They give us, now and then, some of those luxurious sterile emotions that have a certain charm for the weak.... They are simply cheques that men draw on a bank where they have no account.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)