Beggars Belief

[Stug]

Can anybody please explain the origin of the saying 'Beggars Belief'??

[geofbob]

I don't know if there is any particular origin for the expression (it sounds 18th century), but it means that the thing in question has so used up the resources of Belief (regarded as an allegorical person) that he has been turned into a beggar.

[Quizmonster]

'Beggar' - used as a verb, as it is in this phrase, rather than a noun - dates from the 1500s. It means, as Geofbob says, 'to make a beggar of'. The earliest use of a phrase developing this point was in Shakespeare's 'Antony and Cleopatra' (probably 1607). He wrote: "For her own person it beggared all description", talking of the lady herself. Later versions were 'it beggars compare' and even the children's card-game 'beggar-my-neighbour' which appeared in the 1700s. 'Beggars belief', specifically, obviously came onto the scene at some point along the historic line, together with 'beggars comprehension' and a variety of others.