Do you ever wonder where idioms come from? I googled ‘saved by the bell’ and found this:
The origination of the phrase comes from the world of boxing where the rounds are of a short duration and often boxers are saved because of the signalling of the bell to say that the round is over. The opposite party cannot throw another blow when the bell has rung and hence the other side is merely saved by something that happened outside rather than his own efforts. The phrase is speculated to have originated in the 1950’s. Source: theidioms.com
And then there’s saved by the Word, not an idiom but a scriptural fact as in Roman’s 10:9. Happy Sunday.
I love learning the origin of idioms. I compiled a dictionary of Portuguese idioms when I lived in Portugal a loooong time ago. A fun and fascinating exercise. Their equivalent of “it doesn’t hold a candle to” is “nao chega ao calcanhar” (it doesn’t reach my ankles)!
Oh, now that’s interesting!