Don't put all your eggs in one basket

This phrase is often attributed to Miguel Cervantes, the contemporary of Shakespeare and author (in 1605) of the world-famous “Don Quixote.” However, in fact Cervantes’ original Spanish doesn’t use this phrase; various English translators have used it to convey his meaning. Historians note its first recorded use is in a 1660 text, where it is clearly already a well known proverb. After this it appears frequently, always with the same meaning of “Don’t put all your resources (money, time, energy) into the same project, in case that project fails.” (source)

Comments

More bang for your buck

This phrase was used a lot in 1953 but an earlier citation puts it at 1940 in a Metals and Plastics Publications advertisement. Read about it here . The phrase means you get more for your money.

Call it a Day

The literal use of this phrase hails from 1838 when the phrase originally was "call it half a day" to mean leaving work early. (source) The modern use of the phrase is to indicate ending something due to false sense of accomplishment.

Butter someone up

There are two probable origins for this idiom and I think both are equally plausible. The first one is that when you spread butter on bread you are buttering it up like one would do when trying to flatter someone. The second is in ancient India there was a practice of throwing balls of butter at statues to ask for favor, i.e. buttering them up. ( source ) When we use the phrase today we generally mean that extreme flattery is used to gain information or favor. It's not always necessarily a compliment.

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