Did you mean once upon a Time?
Definitions
Wiktionary
- adv. The traditional beginning of children’s stories, especially fairy tales.
Examples
“How she was wandering in Winthrop's old haunts, where the trees had once upon a time been cut by him, she now to order the cutting of the fellow trees.”
“At that time there were still at least four of us, among the inspectors of the Police Judiciaire, who were rather proud of the nickname “hobnailed socks,” given to us once upon a time by satirical songwriters, and which certain young inspectors fresh from college sometimes used among themselves when referring to those of their seniors who had risen from the ranks.”
Maigret's Memoirs
“There dwelt once upon a time in the God-guarded city of Cairo a cobbler who lived by patching old shoes. 1 His name was”
“Let me see, seventeen years ago — or say once upon a time — a fine upstanding lad with a perpetual sniff lived with his lady mother in Pedigree Place.”
More Work for the Undertaker
“I've heard tell how once upon a time they tried to make cyborgs out of cats and mice, tried to make versions that were all dog, or all human.”
“In the once upon a time days of the First Age of Magic, the prudent sorcerer regarded his own true name as his most valued possession but also the greatest threat to his continued good health, for -- the stories go -- once an enemy, even a weak unskilled enemy, learned the sorcerer's true name, then rou - tine and widely known spells could destroy or enslave even the most powerful.”
True Names
“It is told of Anushirwan, the Just King, that once upon a time he feigned himself sick, and bade his stewards and intendants go round about the provinces of his empire and the quarters of his dominion and seek him out a mud-brick thrown away from some ruined village, that he might use it as medicine, informing his intimates that the leaches had prescribed this to him.”
“And it so chanced that once upon a time he said to his attendants “Take ye ten days food and forage;” and, when they obeyed his bidding, he set out with his suite for sport and disport.”
“Perhaps once upon a time Costantina was beautiful – beautiful as the angels – but if so, it was long, long ago.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘once upon a time’.
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... on a ...
turn on a dime, bump on a log, cat on a hot tin ..., be on a roll, bat on a sticky w..., have on a short l..., Leaving on a Jet ..., film based on a t..., on a grand scale, on a clear day, on a cloud, out on a limb and 31 more...
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Fairy Tales
The Brothers Grimm, Disney, Hans Christian Anderson, Charles Perrault, folklore, George MacDonald, the inhabitants of Fabletown--it's all fair game.
cinderella, rose red, snow white, prince charming, beauty and the beast, sleeping beauty, little red riding..., pinocchio, bigby wolf, big bad wolf, briar rose, bluebeard and 45 more...
jennarenn Same kid just spelled this as, "Wensu ponu time". <3 Oct 31, 2009
treeseed "Once upon a time" is a stock phrase that has been used in some form since at least 1380 in storytelling in the English language, and seems to have become a widely accepted convention for opening oral narratives by around 1600. These stories often then end with "... and they all lived happily ever after", or, originally, "happily until their deaths."
It is particularly apparent in fairytales for younger children, where it is almost always the opening line of a tale. It was commonly used in the original translations of the stories of Hans Christian Andersen, or the Brothers Grimm as a translation for the German es war einmal (literally "it was once").
The phrase is also frequently used in oral storytelling, such as retellings of myths, fables, and folklore.
_Wikipedia
Jan 25, 2008