Well attestedNamed from the place
bring owls to Athens
verb · first attested 5th century BC
Athens' own silver coins were stamped with the owl nobody needed more of.
To supply something to a place that already has more of it than it can use.
Record
- Relationship
- Named from the place
- Confidence
- Well attestedThe place link is the standard scholarly account.
- Attested
- 5th century BC
- Part of speech
- verb
Explanations here are written for this atlas. Dictionary text is not copied; the sources are linked so the claim can be checked.
- Step 1
Athens
- In English
bring owls to Athens
The saying turns up in Aristophanes and became a stock Greek proverb: the owl was sacred to Athena and appeared on the city's coinage, so owls in Athens were the definition of surplus. English writers borrowed it as a classical equivalent of carrying coals to Newcastle.
Greece
All 29 entries 28 more words from Greece
marathonThe long race is named for a plain in Attica.MarathoncurrantThe baking fruit is a worn-down word for Corinth.CorinthmagnetThe lodestone is named for Magnesia.MagnesiaacademyEvery academy is named for a grove outside Athens.AkademeialaconicA tight-lipped style is named for Sparta’s region.SpartaOlympicThe games are named for a sanctuary, not for Mount Olympus.OlympiaatticThe room under the roof is named for the region around Athens.AtticaBoeotianAn insult preserved from one Greek region's rivalry with another.Boeotia