snappy, plebeian, by long chalks, As different as chalk and cheese

Thankfully, the snappier "Oriel" came soon after, coming from the oriel window in the entrance to the college.

2011 吳敦義---白賊院長 巧言令色大師---吃飯跟吃屎都一樣
吳敦義---白賊院長 巧言令色大師---說 蔡英文案的文件造假 3月或8月 都一樣.....

某母親: 這是台灣話說 吃飯跟吃屎都一樣.....




As different as chalk and cheese
Meaning

Two things that are very different from each other.
Origin

We have hundreds of phrases to indicate the similarity of one thing with another and similes like 'as alike as two peas in a pod' are commonplace in everyday speech. However, as far as I know, there is only one phrase that does the opposite and explicitly refers to the difference between things and that is 'as different as chalk and cheese'. This is an old expression and the earliest citation of it is in John Gower's Middle English text Confessio Amantis, 1390:


Lo, how they feignen chalk for chese.

Tourist boards in several of the chalkland areas of the UK try to place the phrase's origin in their locality and allude to vague connections between chalk and the local cheese. None of these are convincing and they clearly owe more to marketing than to etymology. So, how did the phrase come about?

There must have been a time in the development of English when we had no standard phrase to express the idea that two things were 'as different as X and Y'. When someone coined such a phrase, and that someone may well have been Gower in 1390, clearly he needed candidates for the roles of X and Y. That doesn't sound difficult, after all most things are different from most other things.

"Maybe, 'as different as a cormorant and a lamp-post'", thinks our coiner, "or 'as different as floorboards and greengrocers'". "No, 'as different as chalk and cheese' sounds better". Why? For no better reason that the fact the 'chalk' and 'cheese' are short and snappy words that alliterate. The English language is packed full of phrases that contain pairs of rhyming or alliterating words - often just because the person who coined them liked the sound of them; for example, hocus-pocus, the bee's knees, riff-raff etc.

A modern-day spin-off of 'chalk and cheese' is 'chalk and talk'. This refers to the traditional teaching method where the teacher stood at the front to address the class while writing on the blackboard with a stick of chalk (which those of a certain age will well remember). The phrase emerged in the UK in the 1930s but had a shortish run as a widely used expression as classrooms began to be equipped with whiteboards in the 1960s. 'Dry-wipe marker pen and talk' never caught on.

Definition of snappy in English:

adjective (snappier, snappiest)

informal

1Irritable and inclined to speak sharply; snappish:anything unusual made her snappy and nervous

2Cleverly concise; neat:snappy catchphrases

2.1Neat and elegant:a snappy dresser

Phrases

make it snappy

1

informal Be quick about it:into bed and make it snappy!

plebeian

(adjective) Of or associated with the great masses of people.
Synonyms: common, unwashed, vulgar
Usage:
It is you, William, who are the aristocrat of your family, and you are not as fine a fellow as your plebeian brother by long chalk.
〔plibí:ən〕
━━ n., a. （古代ローマの）平民（の）; 平民（の）; 粗野な（人）.


by a long chalk 相差很多

chalk
━━ n. 白墨; 白亜（質）.

as different as chalk and [from] cheese / (as) like as chalk (is) to cheese　〔話〕 本質［内容］は全然違った.

by a long chalk / by long chalks　〔英話〕 ずっと; ((否定文で)) けっして（…ない）.

━━ vt. 白墨で書く［こする］; 白亜を塗る, 白亜で白くする.