Thursday, April 28, 2005
On Language 4/27: Q&A’s about teeth, guts, and Kleenex
Sink your teeth into this: Phrase remains elusive
Chicago Tribune, April 27, 2005
By Nathan Bierma
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As for “by the skin of one’s teeth,” it’s no urban legend that the phrase originated in the Bible, but its meaning is uncertain. The phrase is first cited in the Geneva Bible of the 16th Century, which translated Job 19:20 from Hebrew as “I have escaped with the skin of my teeth.”
Despite the odd imagery, the phrase caught on as an idiom. Biblical commentators speculate that the phrase either refers to the gums, or that it means “nothing,” because skin does not exist on teeth.
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