Englishnone of one's business
Meaning: Private; not for anybody else to know.
Example: “How much I paid for the car is none of your business.”
Origin: Builds on "business" in its older sense of one's personal affairs or private concerns, a usage documented from around 1600 — considerably broader than the narrower modern sense of commercial enterprise. "None of your business," using that private-affairs sense, is documented from the early 1800s, though the underlying idea of guarding personal matters from outside interference is naturally much older than any specific wording for it. A jocular, slightly softer variant, "none of your beeswax," playing on the sound of "business" rather than its meaning, arose as American slang by around 1930.
More English idioms
- odds and ends Small items that are left over, don't match, or are missing a mate.
- off one's rocker Out of one's mind; slightly crazy.
- off the beaten path Off the road or way that is most often chosen by other people.
- off the cuff Without much advance preparation; spontaneously.
- off the wall Unusual; peculiar.
- old-boy network The male connections that a man acquires, usually while in college or the military, later…
Explore another collection: Untranslatable Words
Words that capture a feeling or idea English needs a whole sentence for.
Keep exploring