Meaning:
A misfortune.
Background:
The use of `ill wind' is most commonly in the phrase `it's an ill wind that
blows nobody any good'. This is first recorded in John Heywood's A Dialogue
conteinyng the nomber in effect of all the Prouerbes in the Englishe tongue,
1546:
"As you be muche the worse. and I cast awaie.
An yll wynde, that blowth no man to good, men saie.
Wel (quoth he) euery wind blowth not down the corn
I hope (I saie) good hap [luck] be not all out worn."
Heywood's meaning was that a wind that was unlucky for one person would bring
good fortune to another. This sailing metaphor has frequently been invoked to
explain good luck arising from the source of others' misfortune, and it
probably pre-dates 1546.
That meaning, which is still understood today, was subverted somewhat later
to provide a second meaning. In Rob Roy, Sir Walter Scott included:
"Nane were keener against it than the Glasgow folk, wi' their rabblings and
their risings, and their mobs, as they ca' them now-a-days. But it's an ill
wind blaws naebody gude."
The meaning there is clearly the opposite of the old proverb, that is, a wind
that didn't provide benefit to someone would be a bad and unusual one indeed.
Into the 20th century we find a punning joke on the phrase that has been
attributed to many people, notably Sir Thomas Beecham, although I'm unable to
authenticate the true source. This calls the notoriously difficult-to-play
French horn "the wind that nobody blows good".
This little joke was popularized by Danny Kaye's character in the 1947 film
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, although in that version they unfairly opted
for the tuneful though also difficult oboe:
And the oboe it is clearly understood
Is an ill wind that no one blows good.
- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]
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Flu is still in season and, before spring sets in, one braces for pollen which
struck this year shortly after President's Day. On a perfect morning and one of
those with a sudden temperature jump signaling that winter had spent itself, an
otherwise agreeable breeze sprang collective sneezing on town. Sleep was
interrupted, conversations halted, readers left the pages for Kleenex, teachers
excused themselves, students raised their biceps to their faces, and cars
lurched, squealed, or brake-checked. It was an ill wind that everyone has to put
up with once a year.
