[Ads-l] slight antedating of "life of riley"

[mr_peter_morris@outlook.com]

I don't see why any connection is far-fetched.

The idiom means that someone is living in luxury.
The ballad is the story of someone who stole a large amount of money.

A connection doesn't seem unreasonable to my amateur eyes.

And here's an article on the phrase, with a cite from May 1910.

https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/the-life-of-riley.html

"Henry Mungersdorf is living the life of Riley just at present."


------ Original Message ------
From "Jonathan Lighter" 
<00001aad181a2549-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
To ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Date 29/11/2025 16:38:21
Subject slight antedating of "life of riley"

>OED: Dec. 6, 1911.
>
>1911 _Newark Evening Star_  (Jan. 11) 12 [GenealogyBank]: The old king...is
>living the life of "Reilly."
>
>Origin, btw, still  unknown. The phrase seems to have become popular almost
>immediately.
>
>Yes, the phrase appears in the nineteenth-century Anglo-Irish broadside
>ballad "William Reilly," but contextually any connection to the idiom is
>far-fetched.
>
>JL
>--
>"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org