The meaning and origin of the expression: Off with his head
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Off with his head
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Meaning
Literal meaning. That is, 'chop off his head'. It is now usually used humorously as a means of mildly reproaching someone.
Origin
Shakespeare used the phrase many times in his plays and I can find no record of any earlier usage; for example, in Henry VI Part III, 1592:QUEEN MARGARET:
Off with his head, and set it on York gates;
So York may overlook the town of York.
Lewis Carroll became the best-known user of the phrase when he included it in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, (published 1865), The Queen of Hearts shrieks the phrase several times in the story - in fact she doesn't say a great deal else:
The players all played at once without waiting for turns, quarrelling all the while, and fighting for the hedgehogs; and in a very short time the Queen was in a furious passion, and went stamping about, and shouting' Off with his head!' or 'Off with her head!' about once in a minute.
France terror attack: One beheaded, Hollande says - CNN ...
www.cnn.com/2015/06/26/europe/france-attack/
19 mins ago - Hollande: 1 dead in France terror attack; severed head found with message .... severed head covered with Arabic writing to the gates of the factory, in an... Air Products & Chemicals said in statement that its priority was to take ...
CNN
Headless body, scrawled with Arabic, found at French blast ...
www.reuters.com/.../us-france-blast-idUSKBN0P60XR20150626
8 mins ago - Local newspaper Le Dauphine said the head, covered in Arabic ... to give astatement at the European Council headquarters in Brussels, June 26, 2015. ... Asevered head covered in Arabic writing was found at a U.S. gas ...
Reuters
OFF WITH HIS HEAD
Although decapitation
seems a prominent feature
of the Arab Nation
it is not only a creature
of Modern imagination.
since Shakespeare's magnificent brainium
often mentioned a banished cranium
and the Red Queen in Lewis Carroll's Alice
also frequently used the phrase in malice.
But now that it is such a frequent occurrence,
will it risk losing its power of deterrence?
At any rate with this proem
I'll attach yesterday's even more tasteless poem:
hzl
6/27/15
TERRORISM OR MOH'S SURGERY, ARAB STYLE?
A severed head
covered in Arabic writing
rather indecently
has been reported recently
from a French terrorist sighting.
Which causes one to wonder
whether this was an impressive stunt of propaganda
accompanied by memoranda,
or perhaps just a blunder
made by some Arab dermatologist
who misread the report from his pathologist
and cut out quite a bit more than he oughta'.
in order to achieve a tumor -free border?
HZL
6/26/15
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