“‘Hold your peace/Say your piece’

Some folks imagine that since these expressions are opposites, the last word in each should be the same; but in fact they are unrelated expressions. The first means “maintain your silence,” and the other means literally “speak aloud a piece of writing” but is used to express the idea of making a statement. ”

from http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/hold.html

My wife’s an amateur etymologist. She has all these resources literally at her fingertips. Whenever I wonder, “Where did THAT saying come from?” she usually has an answer within minutes.

It’s kinda cool.

“After the Council of Trent, Catholics and Protestants alike required marriage banns or marriage proclamations. Before the wedding ceremony could take place, the proposed marriage would be announced on three successive Sundays in Church and nay-sayers would be given a chance to voice their objection, the origin of the ?speak now or forever hold your peace? ritual. Reasons for the marriage proclamation were to make unsuspecting parents or guardians aware of a clandestine marriage and to insure the statutory legality of said union, i.e., were the bride and groom old enough or was the couple too closely related.”