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BLURB, a novel's testimonial on the dust jacket, perhaps comes from a novelist who provided the picture of a buxom blonde for his cover and called her Miss Blinda Blurb

The expression SECOND STRING, meaning a reserve force, dates back to archers needing a spare in case one broke

In Old English, the word WITH meant 'against'. This meaning is still preserved in phrases such as 'to fight with'

The DOG part of HOT DOGS probably stems from the late 19th century when it was widely believed that sausages were made from dogs

The second most commonly used letter in English is T

RING-A-RING-A-ROSIE has nothing to do with the Black Death as is often supposed. It was merely a nursery rhyme about picking flowers

DENIM, the jeans fabric, was originally made in the French town of Nimes. So Serge di Nimes became shortened to denim

The LORD of the house really was the breadwinner. The word comes from the Old English word for bread

BOLDFACE and FEEDBACKare the shortest words that contain all the letters from A to F

Although the story that swans sing a beautiful song before dying is untrue, it's still the origin of the expression for a farewell performance, SWAN SONG