366 Harp on

One Idiom One Day: Harp on

He kept harping on about something. I had stopped paying attention a long while back.

To speak in a boring tone; to speak continuously about something that is not interesting that puts other people off.

The phrase has been around since the 1600’s. A harp is a musical instrument which is so soothing that can put people to sleep. The origination is speculated to be from this point about something being able to put someone off to sleep. It later changed into being boring and hence putting people off. The phrase was used in ‘Hamlet’ by Shakespeare in the year 1602.

E.g., A majority of people love to harp on about the past, but it is better to live in the present.

Le