| Idiom | On the Fritz |
|---|---|
| Example | We can't watch the game at my house because my TV is on the fritz. , |
| Meaning | broken; out of order; not working |
| Origin | Though this expression is a recent one (the early 1900s), nobody today is quite sure how it got started. One word expert gave the following possible explanation. During World War I, a degrading term for a German soldier was "Fritz," a common German name (short for Friedrich). Something not working or ruined could be compared to the defeated Germans. |
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