<P> "Cold shoulder" is a phrase used to express dismissal or the act of disregarding someone . Its origin is attributed to Sir Walter Scott in a work published in 1816, which is in fact a mistranslation of an expression from the Vulgate Bible . There is also a commonly repeated incorrect folk etymology . </P> <P> The first recorded use of the expression was in 1816 by Sir Walter Scott in the Scots language, in The Antiquary . This expression is a mistranslation of the Latin phrase dederunt umerum recedentem from the Book of Nehemiah 9.29 from the Vulgate Bible, which actually means "stubbornly they turned their backs on you", which comes from the Septuagint Bible's Greek equivalent ἔδωκαν νῶτον ἀπειθοῦντα . Latin umerus (often misspelled humerus) means both "shoulder" and "back": </P> <P> "Ye may mind that the Countess's dislike did na gang farther at first than just shewing o' the cauld shouther ..." </P>

According to the section on road emergencies this author first used the phrase cold shoulder