The earliest occurrence of this phrase is from Humorous Description of the Manners and Fashions of London; in a letter from a Citizen of America to his Correspondent in Philadelphia, published in The Columbian Magazine, or, Monthly Miscellany (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) of April 1788:
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Arthur Caplan, director of the University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics, cited the oath in a summer 1995 article they cowrote for the Philadelphia Lawyer. Calling the oath "a fundamental tenet of medicine that physicians be, and be seen as, healers and comforters, not agents of death," they asserted that doctors have taken ...
(Anniversaries) Philadelphia lawyer Alexander Hamilton went to New York City in 1735 to defend publisher John Peter Zenger in a case where the judge had already disbarred two lawyers who tried to defend Zenger. Bender: Lawyer independence is vital for American society.
Live from death row. A lawsuit, filed by Philadelphia lawyer Joseph Kohn, charges that Texaco "acted with callous disregard for the health, well-being and safety of the plaintiffs.". The complaint also says that Texaco failed to abide by industry standards and follow its own guidelines. Crude awakening in Ecuador.
Origin: In medieval England, it was customary to give a guest a cold piece of meat from the shoulder of mutton, pork, or beef chop when the host felt it was time for the guest to leave. This was a polite way to communicate, “You may leave, now.”.
The first recorded use of the phrase was in 1891 in The Light that Failed.
When they ran out, it meant that they had tried their best at fighting off the target with the entirety of their ammunition.
However, some English expressions are so unusual that it is impossible to guess where on earth it originated from — unless you know the history.