a month of Sundays
a very long period of time
TRANSLATION
a month of Sundays = eine ewig lange Zeit, eine Ewigkeit --- GOOGLE INDEX a months of Sundays: approximately 160,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
"We couldn’t score in A MONTH OF SUNDAYS in the first half – we hit the crossbar, the post and their goal keeper made some great saves…"
(Football report, Rutland and Stamford Mercury newspaper)
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He says that never IN A MONTH OF SUNDAYS could the new parliament building have been built for 40 million pounds, which was the first official figure.
(Evening News, Scotland)
(Football report, Rutland and Stamford Mercury newspaper)
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He says that never IN A MONTH OF SUNDAYS could the new parliament building have been built for 40 million pounds, which was the first official figure.
(Evening News, Scotland)
Did you
know?
a month of Sundays
informal
a very long period of time.
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WORD ORIGIN
A month of Sundays would be 28 to 31 weeks long, a long time by any measure. This expression has been used hyperbolically since it was first recorded in 1832. One writer suggests it originally referred to a long dreary time, since games, the sale of alcohol and other kinds of entertainment used to be forbidden on Sunday.
An even longer time perhaps is a "coon's age," coon* being short for racoon. This is an American expression based on the belief that racoons live long. Some sources estimate they can live from 14 to 17 years in captivity (much less in the wild though), relatively long for an animal. This is equivalent to the longevity of a dog. This brings us to another synonymous phrase "dog's age." They say one dog year equals roughly seven human years.
"Donkey's years" is another animal-related saying that expresses a long period of time. Donkeys can live between 30 and 50 years. Other animals are known to live even longer however. This includes elephants (60 to 70 years has been reported), turtles (wide range up to 70 years) and parrots (documented cases of as long as 100 years in captivity!).
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WARNING
In the U.S., coon has long been a negative term for African-Americans
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SYNONYMS
ages, blue moon, coon's age, dog's age, eternity, indefinitely long period, lifetime, time immemorial, when pigs fly, before hell freezes over, donkey's years
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SMUGGLE OWAD INTO TODAY'S CONVERSATION:
"It will be a month of Sundays before I finish renovating the house."
informal
a very long period of time.
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WORD ORIGIN
A month of Sundays would be 28 to 31 weeks long, a long time by any measure. This expression has been used hyperbolically since it was first recorded in 1832. One writer suggests it originally referred to a long dreary time, since games, the sale of alcohol and other kinds of entertainment used to be forbidden on Sunday.
An even longer time perhaps is a "coon's age," coon* being short for racoon. This is an American expression based on the belief that racoons live long. Some sources estimate they can live from 14 to 17 years in captivity (much less in the wild though), relatively long for an animal. This is equivalent to the longevity of a dog. This brings us to another synonymous phrase "dog's age." They say one dog year equals roughly seven human years.
"Donkey's years" is another animal-related saying that expresses a long period of time. Donkeys can live between 30 and 50 years. Other animals are known to live even longer however. This includes elephants (60 to 70 years has been reported), turtles (wide range up to 70 years) and parrots (documented cases of as long as 100 years in captivity!).
---
WARNING
In the U.S., coon has long been a negative term for African-Americans
---
SYNONYMS
ages, blue moon, coon's age, dog's age, eternity, indefinitely long period, lifetime, time immemorial, when pigs fly, before hell freezes over, donkey's years
---
SMUGGLE OWAD INTO TODAY'S CONVERSATION:
"It will be a month of Sundays before I finish renovating the house."
