What is the origin of the phrase “spring is in the air?” I have fruitlessly tried to google for this, and the sheer number of hits has made it … problematic.
I originally thought it might have been part of the poem containing the words “young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love,” by Alfred Lord Tennyson, but that work (“Locksley Hall”) didn’t appear to be it.
Any ideas?
Wow, nobody, huh? I guess I should submit this one directly to Cecil.
I’d always assumed that it was just literally that…you know that spring is just around the corner when you can smell it in the air.
In the thought that I might simply be looking for the wrong air pollutant, I tried googling different combinations to count the hits:
spring is in the air: 71,500 hits
summer is in the air: 1,330 hits
autumn is in the air: 2,930 hits
fall is in the air: 11,800 hits
winter is in the air: 1,470 hits
Christmas is in the air: 820 hits
love is in the air: 268,000 hits
Clearly there’s something about spring more than other seasons that calls for this use. The hits for “love” surprise me. Is this closer to the origin? Is there a connection to the Tennyson poem?
This site says the idiom in the air traces back to the latter half of the 1800s. Not very specific. Drat it all!
I even text-searched for the word “spring” in Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets online. Perhaps I’ll search next for “in the air” and see what happens.
WAG
Probably from some Ode or other of one of the Romantic Poets.