This may seem lazy, but I'm enquiring on behalf of someone else. Does
anyone know the origin of "Wurmschneider", bzw. "jemandem den
Wurm schneiden". "Wurmschneider" apparently came to be applied to
tourist guides, having originally been associated with one particular
Swiss guard in the Vatican, known for conning his customers (around
1600). I presume that the idiom predates him though. He is mentioned
in a text from 1610 which suggests he acquired the name "nachdem er
einigen Wolgeruesteten den Wurm geschnitten".
Howard Gaskill
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