Origin of Phrases - E
Every Tom, Dick & Harry
The saying didn't start out with these three names. It's believed that the saying, which started out in the 16th century, was a reference to the most common names of the time. In
Ane Dialog betwix Experience and ane Courteour (1555), Sir David Lyndesay said, "Wherefore to colliers, carters and cokes to Jack and Tom my rime shall be directed." Shakespeare, in 1588's
Love's Labour's Lost, talks about a Dick and Tom. The modern version is an American expression which first appeared in the 1815 edition of
The Farmer's Almanac: "So he hired Tom, Dick and Harry, and at it they went."