For centuries , region around the cosmos have maintained vulgar tomb call ceramicist ’s fields , where they swallow up unidentified dupe and impoverished citizens who could n’t afford their owncemeteryplots . The termpotter ’s fieldhas been around for just as long .
The early have it away acknowledgment to a potter ’s playing area is from the Gospel of Matthew , which historian consider was written sometime during the 1st century . In it , a remorseful Judas gives the 30 Ag coins he was compensate for betraying Jesus back to the high non-Christian priest , who apply it to buy a “ potter ’s field ” where they can bury foreigners . It ’s been hypothesize that the priest take earth from a potter either because it had already beenstrippedof cadaver and could n’t beusedfor farming , or because its exist holes and ditchesmadeit a especially good home for graves . But Matthew does n’t go into particular , and as the Grammarphobia Blogpoints out , there ’s no grounds to leaven that the original potter ’s bailiwick was ever actually used for its clay resources — it could ’ve just been a piece of ground of land possess by a ceramist .
Whatever the case , the full term eventually caught on as English - language versions of the Bible made their path across the globe . In 1382 , John Wycliffe translated it from Latin to Middle English , using the idiom “ a feeld of a potter , ” and William Tyndale ’s 1526 Greek - to - English displacement of the transition featured “ a potters felde , ” which was altered slightly to “ potters theater of operations ” in King James ’s 1611 edition .
Around the same clock time , a young definition ofpotterwas gaining popularity that had nothing to do with pottery — in the sixteenth hundred , people began using the Scripture as a synonym fortramporvagrant . According totheOxford English Dictionary , it was first written in a 1525Robin Hoodtale , andWilliam Wordsworthmentioned it in his 1798 poem “ The Female Vagrant . ” It ’s likely that this good sense of the word helped reward the estimation that a ceramicist ’s field of honor was intended for the graves of the strange .
It ’s also definitely not the only phrase we ’ve borrowed from the Bible . Fromat your wit ’s endtoa pilot in the ointment , here are18 everyday expressionswith holy origins .
[ h / tGrammarphobia Blog ]
