Cfrtjryk

I am always on the watch out for new unfamiliar idioms, especially in American English, and today I found one “to hang the moon”.

"And so she's now talked about a lot," McCaskill added. "I'm not sure what she's done yet to generate that kind of enthusiasm, but I wish her well. I hope she hangs the moon. But I hope she also realizes that the parts of the country that are rejecting the Democratic Party, like a whole lot of white working class voters, need to hear about how their work is going to be respected, and the dignity of their jobs, and how we can really stick to issues that we can actually accomplish something on."
CNN Politics
_{Ocasio-Cortez fires back at McCaskill over criticism of rhetoric}

In context, the meaning seems pretty easy to intuit. The speaker, former Senator Claire McCaskill, ostensibly hopes the newly elected Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, will achieve her greatest ambitions while serving on the Senate.

For some reason, the idiom is not listed by Merriam-Webster or Oxford Dictionaries but ot does appear in The Free Dictionary and when I checked Wiktionary, I found a slight twist

hang the moon

1. (idiomatic, US) To place the moon in the sky: used as an example of a superlative act attributed to someone viewed with uncritical or excessive awe, reverence or infatuation.

I don't think Sen. McCaskill views her colleague with an “uncritical eye”, quite the opposite in fact. The 65-year-old Democratic Senator will lose her seat come January 3rd, so the hope expressed could appear to be insincere and veiled criticism of Ocasio-Cortez's inexperience.

According to The Phrase Finder it appears to have surfaced sometime during the 1980s

I have heard it in the context of: “He thought she 'hung the moon.'” Meaning he thought she was super wonderful. I first heard it in the early 80s – Kentucky Gov. John Y. Brown Jr. said it about his new wife Phyllis George.

1. How old is this American English idiom?


2. Is this idiom reserved for someone you really admire or is it used to express incredulity and skepticism, think of the adage "and pigs might fly"?


3. What would be a British English equivalent? None come to mind.

According to Green’s Dictionary of Slang the expression is from the early ‘50s and the sense appears to be more on a negative note:

hang the moon (v.) (only someone very important, e.g. God, could have hung the moon in the sky):

(US) to be very important; thus think one hung the moon, to think very highly of oneself.

• 1953 [US] Randolph & Wilson Down in the Holler 250: Lucy thinks that fool boy of her is God’s own cousin! She thinks he hung the moon!




• 1980 [US] P. Highsmith Boy Who Followed Ripley (1981) 316: I’m sure Frank would. He thinks you hung the moon, Tom.

Other usage instances, from Cassell’s, appear to suggest also a usage with a more positive connotation:

• 1996 “And as long as there’s Stars over Texas / Darling I'll HANG THE MOON for you”—lyrics of song ‘Stars Over Texas’ by country singer Tracy Lawrence>




• 2004 “I have the highest praise for everything and everyone involved with my care, especially Dr. Thomas St. John and his staff. As far as I'm concerned, everyone at Aspen Valley Hospital can HANG THE MOON.”—‘Aspen Times,’ 23 November>




• 2004 “ . . . my Aunt Vivvy . . . . tended to believe that I could HANG THE MOON.”— ‘The Lure of Celtic Lore: Interview with Juilene Osborne-McKnight’ in ‘Solander: The Magazine of the Historical Novel Society,’ v. 8 No. 2, November, page 26-31