I shan't buy my Attic figs in future, but grow them. Don't count
your chickens before they are hatched. It was Xerxes who boasted that
he did not intend any longer to buy his figs, because he meant to
conquer Attica and add it to his own empire; but Xerxes met a signal defeat at
Salamis, and “never loosed his sandal till he reached Abdera.”
In the name of the Prophet, Figs!
“A burlesque of the solemn language employed in eastern countries in
the common business of life. The line occurs in the imitation of Dr.
Johnson's pompous style, in Rejected Addresses, by James and
Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
More on Figs from Fact Monster:
- strangler fig - strangler fig strangler fig, common name for a number of tropical plant species, most of them are ...
- fig - fig fig, name for members of the genus Ficus of the family Moraceae (mulberry family). This large ...
- caprifig - caprifig caprifig : see fig.
- India-rubber tree - India-rubber tree: India-rubber tree: see fig.
- rubber plant - rubber plant rubber plant, name for any plant that yields rubber, specifically the India-rubber ...