Etymology

rhyme or reason

Today it means: Logic; common sense. Full definition →

Middle French n'y avoir ryme ne raison
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The story

  1. Middle French · calque ofn'y avoir ryme ne raison
  2. English todayrhyme or reason

Calque of Middle French n'y avoir ryme ne raison (Eustache Deschamps), attributed to the poet Edmund Spenser in a conversation with Queen Elizabeth I.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.