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The phrase came into common usage around the time of WWI. The first printed citation of ‘the life of Riley’ (with the easy/carefree meaning of the phrase) that I have found is from New Jersey newspaper The News, May 1910: Henry Mungersdorf is living the life of Riley just at present. Quotation marks are usually added to phrases that the ...
Oct 22, 2011 · While it does imply a comfortable existence, it doesn’t necessarily mean that everything comes easily or without hard work. Another mistake is using the idiom incorrectly in context. For example, saying “I’m living the life of Riley” after receiving bad news or experiencing hardship would be inappropriate and confusing for others.
Origin of “The Life of Riley”. The phrase “life of a riley” was first used in the New Jersey newspaper, The News, published in 1910, where it is stated as; “Henry Mungersdorf is living the life of Riley just at present.”. Later, it was used by Sergeant Leonard in an extract, published in 1918, where he wrote, “that he and his pals ...
Living the life of Riley is an American phrase that first showed up in the early 1900s. It was from a New Jersey newspaper, The News, saying, “Henry Mungersdorf is living the life of Riley just at present.”. There were no quotation marks to imply the unfamiliarity of the expression. That means the life of Riley might have already been ...
Oct 31, 1998 · But I’m living the life of Reilly just the same. My Name is Kelly , written by Harry Pease in 1919. Putting all this together, the most likely sequence is that at some point around the time of America’s entry into the First World War the expression was either created among troops in the US Army or was a previously locally known expression that was spread and popularised by contacts within ...
Apr 28, 2012 · 141k10245406. To my way of thinking, this explanation does not make sense. In Ireland, to say someone is 'living the live of Reilly' means that he or she is having a great life. My understanding is that the expression comes from 'living the life of royalty, meaning that you are living like a royal, and that the expression has change through ...
Life of Reilly/Riley. Living the life of Reilly, means living an easy, affluent life. The evidence points to an expression of Irish-American origin dating from the late 19th century. There does not appear to have been a real person named Reilly or Riley (the spelling varies) who lived a life of affluence and luxury.
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