CASTLES IN THE AIR (THE SKIES, IN SPAIN, etc.), subs. phr. (colloquial).—Generic for (1) the impossible, (2) imagination; and (3) hope: see ANALOGOUS PHRASES. TO BUILD CASTLES, etc. = (1) to attempt the impossible; (2) to dream of visionary projects; to indulge in idle dreams; and (3) to be sanguine of success. Hence IN THE AIR = (1) uncertain, in doubt; and (2) anticipated (in men’s minds) as likely; AIR-BUILT = chimerical; AIR-CASTLE = the land of dreams and fancies; AIR-MONGER = a dreamer. [For many additional and some earlier quots., see SPAIN.]
ANALOGOUS PHRASES [Avowedly generic, and inserted in this place because as convenient as any other: the senses, too, must obviously sometimes overlap], 1 (= the impossible). To square the circle; to wash a blackamore white; to skin a flint; to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear; to make bricks without straw; to weave a rope of sand; to extract sunbeams from cucumbers; to set the Thames on fire; to milk a he-goat into a sieve; to catch a weasel asleep; to be in two places at once; to plough the air; to wash the Ethiopian; to measure a twig; to demand a tribute of the dead; to teach a pig to play on a flute; to catch the wind in a net; to change a fly into an elephant; to take the spring from the year; to put a rope in the eye of a needle; to draw water with a sieve; to number the waves. Also (FRENCH) prendre la lune avec les dents; rompre l’arguille au genou.
2 (= imagination). TO HAVE maggots, or whimseys; TO SEE an air-drawn dagger, the flying Dutchman, the great sea-serpent, the man in the moon; TO DREAM of Utopia, Atlantis, the happy valley, the isles of the West, the millennium, of fairy land, the land of Prester John, the kingdom of Micomicon; to set one’s wits to work; to strain (or crack) one’s invention; to rack (ransack, or cudgel) one’s brains.
3 (= hope). To seek the pot of gold (Fr. pot au lait); to dream of Alnaschar; to live in a fool’s paradise; TO SEE a bit of blue sky, the silver lining of the cloud, the bottom of Pandora’s box; to catch at a straw; to hope against hope; to reckon one’s chickens before they are hatched.
1575. GASCOIGNE, The Steele Glas [CHALMERS, English Poets, ii. 58].
| Things are thought, which never yet were wrought, | |
| And CASTELS buylt aboue IN lofty SKIES. |
1580. T. NORTH, Plutarch (1696), 171. They built CASTLES IN THE AIR and thought to do great wonders.
1590. GREENE, Orlando Furioso (1599), 16. In conceite BUILDE CASTLES IN THE SKIE.
1594. SHAKESPEARE, Richard III., iii. 4. 100. Who BUILDS his hopes IN AIR of his good looks.
1601. W. WATSON, Important Considerations (1675), 60. Mr. Saunders (BUILDING CASTLES IN THE AIR amongst his Books).
1621. BURTON, The Anatomy of Melancholy, I. III. i. 2. (1651), 187. That CASTLE IN THE AYR, that crochet, that whimsie.
1627. FELTHAM, Resolves, I. xv. Thou AIR-MONGER that, with a madding thought, thus chaseth fleeting shadows.
c. 1630. DRUMMOND OF HAWTHORNDEN, Poems, 42. 2. Strange CASTLES BUILDED IN THE SKIES.
1727. POPE, The Dunciad, iii. 10. The AIR-BUILT CASTLE and the golden Dream.
1757. WESLEY, Works (1872), IX. 304. A mere CASTLE IN THE AIR.
c. 1763. SHENSTONE, Odes (1765), 237. To plan frail CASTLES IN THE SKIES.
1797. JEFFERSON, Writings (1859), IV. 186. I consider the future character of our republic as IN THE AIR; indeed its future fortune will be IN THE AIR if war is made on us by France.
1831. CARLYLE, Sartor Resartus (1858), 32. High AIR-CASTLES cunningly built of Words.
1879. F. W. FARRAR, The Life and Work of St. Paul, I. 642. These … points … were not peculiar to Philo. They were, so to speak, IN THE AIR.
‘AIR OF A FACE or PICTURE’ (B. E., c. 1696), ‘the Configuration and Consent of Parts in each.’ [For this 18th century quots. are given in O.E.D.].
TO AIR ONE’S VOCABULARY, verb. phr. (old).—To talk for phrasing’s sake; TO FLASH THE GAB (q.v.). [One of the wits of the time of George IV., asked what was going on in the House of Commons, answered that Lord Castlereagh was AIRING HIS VOCABULARY.]
