Thursday, July 16, 2009
Van Gogh was here.
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ESL Expression of the Day : "on the fritz"
example: My air-conditioner is on the fritz.
or
My A/C is on the fritz.
means:
My air conditioner is broken (not working).
or
My air conditioner is working off-and-on (only sometimes).
No one knows where this expression comes from.
It might come from a turn-of-the-century comic strip called "The Katzenjammer Kids"
which was about 2 German kids who break things.
"Fritz" is a German nickname.
"turn of the century" is another expression for the years around 1900.