 However it is surprising that there is no recorded use between the 1050s (the origin of the tale) and the first possible example suggested by the "Oxford English Dictionary", dated 1647.Furthermore, there is no support for this derivation in "Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable" (1981), the "Oxford English Dictionary" (1986), or Partridge's "Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English" (1961).An early example of the idiom is from the "Club book of the Tarporley Hunt" (1765)