tom dick and harry???

[Westenra-Fan]

where did the phrase "every tom dick or harry" come from?

[Clanad]

The saying, apparently, 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." 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." 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." (With thanks to Phrases, Cliches and Expressions)

[Quizmonster]

Here are two more possibilities:-
a. Tom, Dick and Harry Dunsden were brothers who became notorious highwaymen in Oxfordshire in the late 1700s. All three died at the hands of the law in one way or another and their exploits became the stuff of legend. Two of them were hung in chains after their execution and these chains were, apparently, still to be seen as recently as the 1930s.
b. The phrase, it has been claimed, is an anglicised version of a Cornish one that sounds like the three names. "An tamm, diek or'n arja", which means "the clod of a farmer at the plough". In other words, 'just about anybody' as the modern phrase implies.

The second of these may be an elaborate Cornish joke. Since I know nothing of that language, I cannot vouch for its accuracy!

[joko]

Sorry, could you repeat that please clanad...;o)

[2centsworth]

The way my family history goes. Tom, Dick, and Harry, were related to the Byrd family (Admiral Byrd). I am also a decendent. They became rich shortly before the Civil War on a plantation the brothers ran together. They then spend every cent of their money and went broke in a short period of time. The saying started, "He spends money like every Tom, Dick, and Harry." That is the families story on it.