What is the meaning and origin of the idiom ‘roll out the red carpet’?
(Bipin, New Delhi) This is something that people do when they wish to welcome or entertain someone whom they consider to be special. When you roll out the red carpet for someone, you are giving him a very special welcome. When you give someone the ’red carpet treatment’, you treat the person like royalty. *When he arrived in Mumbai, the actor was given the red carpet treatment. In the old days whenever the king and the queen stepped out of the palace, a red carpet was spread out for them to walk on. Nowadays it is rolled out for everyone: heads of state, actors, sportsmen, etc. There was a time when people thought that walking on the red carpet was “fit only for the feet of gods.
