"Proper old English idiom?"

Contemporary usage aligns with them far more closely than the old idiom.

Lemon considered the English language as founded on six older idioms:

The Harbinger of Awesome We're going to have to amend the old idiom: Nothing is certain but death, taxes and crazy Gus Johnson finishes.

Today the search for freshness is less likely to lead to new work in old idioms than to revived, or even reconstructed, old work.

Reading with an eye to my own situation, I found frequent reference to an old Chinese idiom, "patting the tiger's backside," a reference to those who misjudge the tolerance of the powerful.

"Just collecting old idioms."

He knows older American idioms, too.

"To put the fear of God in us, as the old idiom has it," Ogden growled.

Soon, however, their youthful enthusiasm and different experiences found expression in new stylistic venues which eventually changed the old idiom.