no rhyme or reason
there is no obvious explanation
TRANSLATION
no rhyme or reason = ohne Sinn und Verstand, ohne ersichtlichen Grund --- GOOGLE INDEX no rhyme or reason: approximately 200,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
Medical bills follow no RHYME OR REASON, study concludes
(The Advocate, news headline)
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To the average person, it probably seems as if there's no RHYME OR REASON to how gas prices are determined.
(thepilot.com)
(The Advocate, news headline)
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To the average person, it probably seems as if there's no RHYME OR REASON to how gas prices are determined.
(thepilot.com)
Did you
know?
no rhyme or reason (also, without rhyme or reason, neither rhyme nor reason)
idiom
- to be without any obvious reasonable explanation
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
---
Shakespeare enhanced the English language with a wide range of expressions that are still used today. He was a prolific writer who was skilled at creating poetic phrases, euphemisms and metaphors to describe the human condition. But he wasn't always as original as one might think. The expression rhyme or reason, for which he is largely credited, is a good example.
In Comedy of Errors from 1590, Dromio of Syracuse says:
Was there ever any man thus beaten out of season,
When in the why and the wherefore is neither rhyme nor reason?
He used it again in As You Like It from 1600:
Rosalind: But are you so much in love as your rhymes speak?
Orlando: Neither rhyme nor reason can express how much.
The fact is, most experts claim the expression was first recorded by John Russell in The Boke of Nurture, circa 1460:
As for ryme or reson, ye forewryter was not to blame,
For as he founde hit afore hym, so wrote he ye same.
This is an Old English construction that essentially says don't blame someone who only copies what someone else wrote. In this context rhyme refers to poetic expressions and reason refers of course to logic. So if something is without rhyme or reason, it makes no sense either figuratively or logically.
A likely (but unverifiable) origin of this expression is the French phrase "sans rime ni raison," which literally means "without rhyme or reason.'' It was originally used to describe bad poetry. Many educated English speakers of past centuries were also fluent in French and perhaps they simply borrowed the translated version of the phrase into their native tongue.
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SYNONYMS
illogical, senseless, inexplicable, implausible
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"The flight was cancelled for no rhyme or reason."
idiom
- to be without any obvious reasonable explanation
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
---
Shakespeare enhanced the English language with a wide range of expressions that are still used today. He was a prolific writer who was skilled at creating poetic phrases, euphemisms and metaphors to describe the human condition. But he wasn't always as original as one might think. The expression rhyme or reason, for which he is largely credited, is a good example.
In Comedy of Errors from 1590, Dromio of Syracuse says:
Was there ever any man thus beaten out of season,
When in the why and the wherefore is neither rhyme nor reason?
He used it again in As You Like It from 1600:
Rosalind: But are you so much in love as your rhymes speak?
Orlando: Neither rhyme nor reason can express how much.
The fact is, most experts claim the expression was first recorded by John Russell in The Boke of Nurture, circa 1460:
As for ryme or reson, ye forewryter was not to blame,
For as he founde hit afore hym, so wrote he ye same.
This is an Old English construction that essentially says don't blame someone who only copies what someone else wrote. In this context rhyme refers to poetic expressions and reason refers of course to logic. So if something is without rhyme or reason, it makes no sense either figuratively or logically.
A likely (but unverifiable) origin of this expression is the French phrase "sans rime ni raison," which literally means "without rhyme or reason.'' It was originally used to describe bad poetry. Many educated English speakers of past centuries were also fluent in French and perhaps they simply borrowed the translated version of the phrase into their native tongue.
---
SYNONYMS
illogical, senseless, inexplicable, implausible
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"The flight was cancelled for no rhyme or reason."
