All my eye and Betty Martin

Posted by ESC on February 11, 2004

In Reply to: All my eye and Betty Martin posted by David Cundy on February 11, 2004

: Origin please?

From the archives under "Betty":

"ALL MY EYE AND BETTY MARTIN! - inf. (informal) baloney! Various derivations proposed. The most likely would seem to be 'Mihi beata mater' which appears to be Latin for something like 'Grant to me, blessed Mother'). According to one legend, the imperfectly understood phrase was reported back to Britain by a sailor who had been abroad and to him it sounded like 'all my eye and Betty Martin.' The British often shorten the expression to 'all my eye!' .American 'my eye!' Other American synonyms are 'hogwash' and 'eyewash.'" From "British English A to Zed" by Norman W. Schur (HarperCollins, New York, 1987).