This column studies the history of words and phrases and their origins.

Be-all and end-all - essential element, entire purpose

Origin - Shakespeare invented the phrase but meant something slightly different.

Macbeth appears willing to kill the king as long as the murder 'Might be the be-all and the end-all here' (I, 7, line 5), ie: if it could be complete in itself, without any consequences.

Bear-garden - scene of uproar

Origin - Originally a place for the baiting of bears; they were chained to a post and attacked by dogs.

The pastime was notorious for rowdiness and bad language among the rabble who enjoyed it

Beard the lion in his own den - confront a dangerous adversary on his own ground

Origin - This Biblical phrase is extracted from the words of the young David explaining why he should be allowed to fight Goliath: when he was a shepherd - 'there came a lion...I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him' (I Samuel, 17: 34-5).

Beat about the bush - show unnecessary caution

Origin - The phrase is found in the 14th Century proverb One beats the bush, another takes the bird, meaning that one person works and another, the master, profits. The reference is to hunting for game-birds: the beater disturbs it and the hunter ensnares it as it flies from cover. Nowadays game-birds are more likely to be shot in flight; before the invention of gunpowder more caution was needed to get near the bird before hunting could start.

Beauty and the beast - two sharply contrasting people or things

Origin -This is originally the title of a fairy-tale introduced into European literature in Straparola's Pleasant Nights (1550-3) and in a better-known French version by Villeneuve in 1740-1. To save the life of her father, his youngest daughter Beauty agrees to live with the Beast, an ugly monster; filled with pity and affection she finally agrees to marry him, whereupon he turns into a handsome prince, released from a cruel spell by her virtue.

Bee in one's bonnet - an obsession

Origin - An alliterative refinement of an earlier expression 'his head is full of bees', i.e. he is scatterbrained, unable to think straight, as if he has bees buzzing around inside his head. The notion of having a bee in one's bonnet implies an inability to concentrate on anything else

Bell the cat - undertake a difficult mission at great personal risk

Origin - An ancient fable tells of a colony of mice who met together to discuss how they could thwart a cat that was terrorising them. One young mouse suggested hanging a bell around the cat's neck so that its movements would be known to them. This plan delighted the rest of the group until an older and wiser mouse asked the obvious question, "Who will bell the cat?"