Right and bad

Right and bad (often also in the reverse order bad and right ) is a saying and means as much as as good as possible or with great effort and just like that .

etymology

The word "bad" originally meant "simple, plain , smooth". So it was a form of reinforcement in accordance with the rhyme when one spoke of right and bad in the sense of right and right . In this sense the phrase occurred in the Luther Bible of 1534 in Job 1,1: "There was a man in the land of Uz / who was called Job / he was bad and right / God-fearing / and avoids evil."

It was not until the 17th century that the word was given its current meaning, but the idiom did not change. The expression thus experienced almost a meaning reversal, since according to today's usage the dominance of the negative prevails badly .

This is why the phrase is often used more badly than right when this phrase is used.

source

• Duden 11, page 625