Having a time of great success or achievement.
This is a pretty common phrase in English, but what does success have to do with fields? (apart of course from the farmer who was outstanding in his field)
Well it doesn’t really have that much to do with fields.
When I was young, I was often curious when characters on American TV would occasionally mention cursive. I could never figure out what they meant, and it was mentioned rarely enough that I never really got enough context to figure it out. It also sounded quite strange as it sounded so much like the word curse (and a joke in a classic Simpsons episode is based on this resemblance).
I’ve noticed this phrase a lot online recently. I haven’t heard it much in real life, with it being an American-English term, but it certainly seems to have cropped up a lot lately.
Some of you might go to the gym regularly, to keep fit. Good for you, if you do. You might know that gym is short for gymnasium, which would be quite a long word to say all the time, so the abbreviation makes sense.
A red-letter day is a day of special significance for some reason or another. Why do we call it a red-letter day?
… and they’ll take a mile. Or, how about…
Give someone a centimetre, and they’ll take a kilometre.
Only one of these is an actual phrase in English, but it doesn’t make reference to the system of measurement in use in every country except three.
You may have never thought about this before. After all, the word is so common that we now use it as a verb without anyone batting an eyelid. I’ve thought about it now and then though. Mainly because that’s what I do, but also because I remember it from my childhood.
English-Language Thoughts 