# ... Something wicked this way comes - Shakespeare idioms **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [November 26, 2021, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-wicked-this-way-comes-shakespeare-idioms/954999 "2021-11-26T23:38:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2021, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-wicked-this-way-comes-shakespeare-idioms/954999/1 "2021-11-26T23:38:54Z")
“By the pricking of my thumbs”, Act 4, scene 1 of Macbeth. All definitions I could find basically say it means a foreboding, then reference Macbeth. Was that a saying before Shakespeare or was it just something he made up because it sounded cool and rhymed? One online source claimed it was because the second witch has a tingling sensation in her thumbs. But “pricking of” seems to be a verb, not a tingling. (yes, I’m at work - the ONLY one here - and I’m bored) ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2021, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-wicked-this-way-comes-shakespeare-idioms/954999/2 "2021-11-27T03:30:25Z")
I didn’t recognize this as a Shakespeare idiom at all. Instead I thought of the Ray Bradbury novel: > **[Something Wicked This Way Comes (novel)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Wicked_This_Way_Comes_(novel))** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > Something Wicked This Way Comes is a 1962 dark fantasy novel by Ray Bradbury. It is about two 13-year-old best friends, Jim Nightshade and William Halloway, and their nightmarish experience with a traveling carnival that comes to their Midwestern home, Green Town, Illinois, on October 24th. In dealing with the creepy figures of this carnival, the boys learn how to combat fear. The carnival's leader is the mysterious "Mr. Dark", who seemingly wie... ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2021, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-wicked-this-way-comes-shakespeare-idioms/954999/3 "2021-11-27T08:03:20Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > One online source claimed it was because the second witch has a tingling sensation in her thumbs. But “pricking of” seems to be a verb, not a tingling. Well, it can be just as much a noun as a tingling, only more painful. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2021, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-wicked-this-way-comes-shakespeare-idioms/954999/4 "2021-11-27T16:12:10Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > “By the pricking of my thumbs” In the early 17th century James V! routinely tortured women to ‘prove’ that they were witches. His book, _Daemonologie_ is said to have inspired elements of Shakespeare’s _Macbeth_. It includes insights into necromancy, witchcraft and sorcery. - The search for the ‘Devil’s Mark’ however, a branding bestowed upon anyone who’d made a pact with the Devil, was enacted in Scotland. It involved an invasive search of the body and ‘pricking’ – using pins to find a spot that was blemished or insensitive, sometimes carried out by specialist “witch-prickers”. > **[Heresy, they say? James VI and the witch trials](https://www.scotlandmag.com/james-vi-and-witch-trials/)** > > We explore the macabre witch hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries and James VI’s grim obsession ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2021, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-wicked-this-way-comes-shakespeare-idioms/954999/5 "2021-12-03T00:51:22Z")
Thank you for that link. That seems to make sense.