Western Front

[newgirliesa]

What does the phrase All quiet on the Western Front mean?

[allen ives]

It originates in the First World War, when the opposing armies faced each other on 'fronts', i.e. lines of trenches or whatever.

In the 1920s, Erich Remarque, a German novelist, wrote Im Westen nichts Neues (All Quiet on the Western Front), which was subsequently made into a masterly anti-war film. I suppose nowadays it's used loosely to mean 'nothing much happening'...