<P> It's not clear how Scott intended readers to understand the phrase . The more modern ironic sense appears in the 1842 poem "The Ingoldsby Legends" by the English clergyman Richard Barham, in which a Frenchman inspects a watch and cries: </P> <P>' Superbe! Magnifique!' / (with his tongue in his cheek) </P> <P> The ironic usage originates with the idea of suppressed mirth--biting one's tongue to prevent an outburst of laughter . </P>

Where did phrase tongue in cheek come from