6. Such great English writers as Jeoffrey Chaucer, John Milton, Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, Charles Dickens and Walter Scott contributed greatly to the stock of phraseologisms:

Quarrel with one’s bread and butter (Swift) – бросить занятие, дающее средства к существованию);

To rain cats and dogs (Swift)

An Artful Dodger – прохвост, пройдоха (прозвище карманника Джона Докинса в романе “Oliver Twist” by Ch Dickens);

Prunes and prism – жеманная манера говорить, жеманство, манерность (“Little Dorrit” by Ch. Dickens);

To laugh on the wrong side of one’s mouth – приуныть после веселья, от смеха перейти к слезам (“Rob Koy” by W. Scott);

What will Mrs. Grundy say? (“Speed the Plough” by Th. Morton);

Small talk – (“Letters to his Son” by Lord Chesterfield);

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Robert Lewis Stevenson).

Corridors of power – (Charles Snow)

The Wind of change – ветер перемен (Harold Mc Millain, The British prime-minister used it in 1960 speaking to the South-African parliament.

7. Bibleisms represent borrowings which are fully assimilated:

To cast pearl before swine;

New wine in old bottles;

The root of all evil;

The olive branch;

A wolf in sheep’s clothing;

To beat swords into plough-shares.

8. Phraseological Borrowings:

1. A great amount of English phraseological units are connected with ancient mythology, history and literature; some of them have an international character:

Achilles heel, the apple of discord, Augean stables, the golden age, the thread of Ariadne, the Trojan Horse, to cry wolf too often, to rest on one’s laurels, a bed of roses, at the Greek calends (ad calendas Graecas).

2. Phraseological borrowings from French were either rendered into English or present translation loans:

after us the deluge (après nous le déluge);

appetite comes with eating (l’appétit wient en mangeant);

the fair sex (le beau sexe);

castles in Spain (châteaux en espagne);

let’s return to our muttons (revenons à nos moutons);

3. Phraseological borrowings from German were not numerous:

Blood and iron (Blut und Eisen) принцип политики Бисмарка

The mailed fist (gepanzerte Faust) Вильгельм II, 1897

Storm and stress (Sturm und Drang) – течение в немецкой литературе 70-80 гг. XVIII в.. Период напряжения и беспокойства.

4. Phraseolical borrowings from other languages: Spanish, Russian, Danish, Dutch, Italian, Arabic, Chinese:

Blue blood, the fifth column, the Knight of the Rueful Countenance, tilt at windmills.

The Sick Man of Europe – Николай II о Турции в 1853 г. – любая европейская страна, находящаяся в тяжелом экономическом положении.

An ugly duckling – человек несправедливо оцененный ниже своих достоинств (Г.Х. Андерсен);

To lose face – потерять престиж, быть униженным, обесчещенным (кит. Tiu lien);

Alladin’s lamp, an open sesame – быстрый и легкий способ достижения чего-либо.

It is worthy of note that there are phraseologisms which coinside in Russian, English, French, and German without borrowing:

A bird of passage, oiseau de passage, Zugvogel.