"Phrase of the Week" gave me "the devil to pay" this week. I understood it to mean 'paying the debt you owe whether the lender is good or bad,' but PW (along with CANOE) introduced me to a new meaning of 'devil'–'the seam of a boat that marginalizes the water'–and a new meaning of 'paying'—'filling and sealing with rope and caulk.'

Turns out that the 'devil' we all know and l-- ... hide-from is the original representee of the word—shown by a centuries-older letter from the dead to the living. And the phrase 'the devil to pay' was probably adopted into nautical jargon from that.

So both origins hold, as do the nautical- and mythological origins of "between the devil and the deep blue sea" (below), possibly the title of a good script you're working on.