Englishfly in the ointment
Meaning: An unpleasant element in an otherwise pleasant situation.
Example: “The trip was perfect; the only fly in the ointment was the lost luggage.”
Origin: Usually traced to Ecclesiastes 10:1 — "dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour" — though the exact wording "a fly in the ointment" appears in no English Bible translation, nor in the Hebrew, Greek, or Latin texts behind it; the phrase was inspired by that verse rather than lifted from it. The earliest citation the Oxford English Dictionary has for the actual idiom is Charles Lamb's essay "Poor Relations," printed in the London Magazine in May 1823 — nearly two centuries after the King James translation would have put the biblical image into wide circulation.
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