nothing new under the sun

Ali F.   Fri Mar 31, 2006 1:49 am GMT
Hi every body, this is my first post in this forum
has anybody heard of the expression " nothing new under the sun"
I have just read it in a book that I'm not sure it's reliable ( written by none-native speaker ), anyway, the book says that the idiom is said when something new has become normal and it's considered so by so many others
Guest   Fri Mar 31, 2006 3:04 am GMT
"nothing new under the sun" means "there is nothing new to talk about." How I guessed the meaning of the above expression, you can also a have clue from these two expressions.

"Everything under the sun" means "a very great number of things."
"Anything under the sun" means "anything at all."

e.g: We sat there for hours talking nothing new under the sun.
Guest   Fri Mar 31, 2006 3:08 am GMT
Thew phrase actually means there is nothing new at all, not that there is nothing new to talk about.
Kirk   Fri Mar 31, 2006 3:22 am GMT
If you're looking for the origins of the phrase, I believe it was first known from a passage in a biblical book. A quick google search confirmed it's from the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 1 verse 9:

"What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun."