Читать книгу Bees Knees and Barmy Armies - Origins of the Words and Phrases we Use Every Day - Harry Oliver - Страница 10

Meaning to move extremely quickly, this phrase originally came into widespread use in Britain’s Royal Flying Corps during the First World War, when a plane was said to fly ‘like a bat out of hell’. The comparison with bats is easy to understand – they appear to fly very quickly indeed, and give off an air of panic. As for their being ‘out of hell’, you can well imagine they would wish to avoid the burning flames of hell and would fly extra-fast to get away from them. This may only be part of the explanation as to how the phrase came about, though, as it’s likely that the age-old association between bats and the fearsome powers of the occult has something to do with the formulation.