Kidding

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To someone kidding means someone who mostly jokingly, a lie plausible to tell, so he believes.

etymology

There are three theories about the origin of this saying:

  1. The phrase fooling originally comes from the Low German appel for apple . Cheating means throwing apples at someone , which was often done in inns around 1600.
  2. The idiom deceiving developed from the Yiddish term Eppel (= nothing). So this idiom means to destroy someone .
  3. The phrase comes from the Low German word ape , which means monkey . Cheating would mean treating someone like a monkey .

Synonyms

Synonyms for this phrase would be: someone take his arm , someone around by the nose , someone untie a bear or - colloquially - someone kidding .

See also

Wiktionary: kidding  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.heinrich-tischner.de/22-sp/2wo/wort/idg/deutsch/v/verappel.htm
  2. ↑ http://www.renateblaes.de/blog/redensart-veraeppeln/  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.renateblaes.de  
  3. ↑ http://www.heinrich-tischner.de/22-sp/2wo/wort/idg/deutsch/v/verappel.htm