Everyone loves an eager beaver, at least if they are eager at helping them. But be an eager beaver at work with all the other griping and disillusioned staff and you might not do yourself many favours at all!
So what is the origin of this phrase then - is it, as one will naturally suspect, something to do with the animal itself?
Well, indeed yes it is - the powers that be say that this comes from people watching beavers working and, well, beavering away at that work - they seemed to always be doing work of some sort of other which was admirable.
Although it is now known that they are all fairly equal and some are not more eager than others, that's where the phrase has come from and the fact it trips off the tongue and sounds kind of cool has kept it in the vernacular.
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