You know, sometimes you hear phrases and other things, and you wonder about their origin? Well, I'm here to help. Let's post and solve the mysteries behind these phrases together

I'd like to start with one I thought of very recently: "things that go bump in the night". I've heard it in titles for articles and game levels. Anyone know what exactly it means or is reffering to?

he earliest known example of the phrase in print is in the 1918 in the Bulletin of the School Oriental and African Studies:

"To a people ... who ... believe in genii, ghosts, goblins, and those terrific things that 'go bump in the night', protective charms are eagerly sought for."

That usage suggests that the author expected his readers to be familiar with the phrase. Around the same time the phrase was incorporated into a prayer:

From goulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties
And things that go bump in the night
Good Lord, deliver us!

This was recorded in The Cornish and West Country Litany, 1926, but it quite likely to be much earlier.

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/378900.html