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hard as nails.

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ImLostAgain | 00:12 Wed 03rd Jun 2009 | Phrases & Sayings
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Why hard as nails? Why not hard as rock, diamond, granite or some such?
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Avatar Image Clanad
One of my desktop sources says "...Unyielding, callous, unsympathetic, as in Don't ask her for a contribution, she's hard as nails. This expression has replaced the 14th-century simile hard as flint stone and presumably alludes to the rigidity of nails..."

However, another source places the first written useage as " 1838, Twist, chapter ix, "Hard" replied the Dodger, "as nails", added Charley Bates..."
00:25 Wed 03rd Jun 2009
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Cheers Clanad. Good answer. Interesting about the 'Twist' connection.
As an afterthought I remember a little old guy in my then local who wouldn't have weighed six and a half stone wet through who used to often say, " I'm as hard as nails me, easily hammered".
00:34 Wed 03rd Jun 2009

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