Find your way to the bottom of the road…

As Ross Kemp says on Bridge of Lies ‘There’s always a way; you’ve just got to find it!’
I was heading down to Trinity for a bacon and brie panini so a hole in the road wasn’t going to stop me;-)

My saying today is ‘Memory like a sieve’.

Origin and History
The idiom “memory like a sieve” is a vivid and commonly used phrase to describe someone with a poor or unreliable memory, someone who easily forgets things. But where did this interesting comparison come from, and how did it become so ingrained in our language? There are the various theories and the historical trail of this enduring expression.
Source: theidioms.com

The Core Analogy: A Sieve’s Function
The most direct and widely accepted theory for the origin of “memory like a sieve” lies in the very nature of a sieve. A sieve is a tool with many small holes, primarily used to separate finer particles from coarser ones, or to strain liquids. Its fundamental purpose is to allow things to pass through.
Therefore, the analogy is straightforward: just as a sieve cannot hold much material and lets most of it fall through, a “memory like a sieve” cannot retain much information, letting details and facts slip away easily. This simple yet effective comparison makes the meaning of the idiom immediately understandable to anyone familiar with the common kitchen utensil.
An Ancient Greek Echo: The Danaids’ Punishment
One fascinating theory links the idiom to ancient Greek mythology, specifically the story of the Danaids. The Danaids were the fifty daughters of Danaus, who, with the exception of one, murdered their husbands on their wedding night. As punishment in the underworld, they were condemned to eternally carry water in sieves or bottomless vessels, never able to fill them.
This mythical punishment perfectly encapsulates the futility of trying to retain something that constantly escapes, much like information slipping through a forgetful mind. While it is difficult to definitively prove a direct lineage from this myth to the English idiom, the symbolic parallel is striking and suggests a long-standing human understanding of the “sieve” as a symbol of porousness and inability to hold.
The Contrastive Memory: Holding the “Bran” and Losing the “Flower”
Interestingly, the phrase has also been used in a slightly different, more nuanced sense, highlighting the contrast between what the mind remembers and what it forgets. In this interpretation, a “memory like a sieve” might retain the less important or “coarser” information (like bran) while allowing the more valuable or “finer” information (like flour) to pass through. This adds a layer of irony to the forgetfulness, implying that the mind selectively holds onto what is less useful.
Earliest Printed Records and Country of Origin
While the concept of a porous memory likely existed in various forms for a long time, tracing the exact first appearance of “memory like a sieve” in print provides valuable insight into its formal adoption into the English lexicon.
The phrase or a similar construction appears to have its origins in England. Early instances of the phrase or closely related expressions can be found in English literature from the 17th and 18th centuries.
One of the earliest recorded uses of a very similar sentiment comes from Francis Quarles (1592-1644), an English author, in his work Judgment and Mercy for Afflicted Souls; or, Meditations, Soliloquies, and Prayers (1807 edition, though the original text likely dates earlier). He wrote: “My memory like a sieve, retains the bran, and lets the flower pass.”
Another early example, dating back to 1676 but published in 1823, is by the English Muggletonian author Thomas Tomkinson (1631-1710): “Our memories here, whilst in mortality, are many times very defective and weak, we are not able to retain what we see and hear, but what goes in at the one ear, goes out at the other, being like unto a sieve, &c.”
Further examples include:
John Garretson, an English schoolmaster, in English Exercises for School-Boys to Translate into Latin (1706): “Thy mind is a like a Sieve; I will not commit secrets to thy trust; thou hast promised secrecy, but thou forgettest thy promise.”
The Irish novelist Laurence Sterne (1713-1768), in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760): “…a memory like unto a sieve, not able to retain what it has received.”
The Anglo-Irish novelist and playwright Frances Sheridan (née Chamberlaine – 1724-1766), in The Dupe, a Comedy (1764).
These records strongly suggest that the idiom gained traction in the English-speaking world, particularly in England, during the 18th and early 19th centuries, eventually becoming the commonly understood phrase, we use today. The consistent imagery across these early texts solidified its meaning in the collective consciousness.
Source: theidioms.com