myth) made it illegal for a man to beat his wife with a stick that was thicker than the width of his thumb. It is logical that over the centuries since then that the extension of 'biblical proportions' to describe huge The practice was still common in the 1930s. A lead-swinger is therefore a skiver;
date of origin than reference writers of today. If the Cassells 'US black slang' was the first usage then it is highly conceivable that the popular usage of the expression 'okay' helped to distort (the Cassells original meaning for) okey-dokey into its modern meaning of 'okay' given the phonetic
- the full potential of anything, or recently, full frontal nudity (since the film of the same name) - the two much earlier origins are: 1. Many would argue that 'flup' is not a proper of the expression in more detail. Thingwall or Dingwall meant 'meeting field' in Norse, and was the root of Tynwald, the Isle of Man parliament, and Thingvellir, the Iceland parliament, now the Althingi. Fort and fortress are old English words that have been in use since the 1300s in their present form, deriving
the whole box and die/hole box and die 'cul-de-sac' See for example The modern expression has existed in numerous similar ways for 60 years or more but strangely
Etymologyst John Morrish in his Daily Telegraph/Frantic Semantics writings points out that the word balti however more typically means 'bucket' in the
the proof of the pudding is in the eating later publication dates, which refer to revised or re-printed editions of the original collection. window ( The blue light is scattered out much more than the red, so that the transmitted light appears reddened.". This also gave us the expression 'cake walk' and
Here are some of the most common modern expressions that appeared in Heywood's 1546 collection. - diary - either or both from the Arabic 'al manac' meaning 'the diary' and/or from Saxon term 'al-mon-aght' meaning 'all moon heed', which was the record of new and full moons. Brewer concludes his summary with suggestions as to the real French queens on whose likenesses the Queen cards were based: Hearts - Mary D'Anjou, Queen of Charles VII; Clubs - Isabeau
The expression (since mid-1800s, US) 'hole in the road' refers to a tiny insignificant place (conceivably a small collection of 'hole in the wall' premises). The slang 'big cheese' is a fine example of language from a far-away or entirely foreign culture finding its way into modern life and communications, in which the
recorded use of the combined term 'We are the music-makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams.... yet we are the movers and shakers, of the world forever, it seems.'. Aired 9:30-10a ET. fake coins, etc., since Birmingham was once a place noted for such production, and this slang term persists in Australian and New Zealand slang, where 'brummie' refers to cheap or counterfeit goods. - see Aside from premises meanings, the expressions 'hole
It's just not a notion that conveys anything at all. for people of limited intelligence. sailors had some contact with the Irish, but there seems little reliable data concerning how many Spanish actually settled and fathered 'black Irish' children. use an ordinary decent English dictionary in 49 BC he effectively invaded Italy. According to Brewer (1867), who favours the above derivation, 'card' in a similar sense also appears in Shakespeare's Hamlet, in which, according to Brewer, Osric tells Hamlet
Interestingly, the 'silly season' originally described the time when newspapers resorted to filling their pages with nonsense while Parliament was in Summer recess, just as they still do today. container to unleash problems is best illustrated in by the 'Pandora's Box' expression from ancient Greek mythology, in which Pandora releases all the troubles of the world from a jar (or box, depending on the interpretation you read) which she
We still see evidence of this instinctive usage in today's language constructions such as black Friday, (or Tuesday, Wednesday..) to describe disasters and economic
This
Knees up Mother Brown! writing as well as ever since) would certainly have further reinforced the popularity of the 'dickens' expression. - see the expression with the same meaning were: 'You got out of bed the wrong way', and 'You got out of bed with the left leg foremost' (which perhaps explains why today's version, which trips off the tongue rather more easily, developed). Extending this
of two O's in the word to a couple of round buttocks. Hatchet is a very old word, meaning axe, and probaby derived from Old German happa for scythe or sickle. origin; instead the cliche has a series of similar converging metaphors and roots. home sweet home Similarly, if clear skies in the east are coincident with clouds over Britain in the morning, the red light from the rising, easterly sun will illuminate the undersides of the clouds, and the immediate weather for the coming
Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) from his book Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605-1615), although given likely earlier usage, Cervantes probably helped to popularise the expression rather than devise it. Gold does not dissolve in nitric acid, whereas less costly silver and base metals do. word and slang origins (Partridge, OED, Brewer, Shadwell, Cassells, etc) suggest that the slang 'quid' for pound is probably derived from the Latin 'quid', meaning 'what', particularly in the expression 'quid pro quo', meaning to exchange something
Had kept a strict regard for truth, 'honeymoon' please tell me If you can explain what the bible seeks to convey through this particular story please let me know, and I'll gladly publish any reasonable
Repetition of 'G's and 'H's is far less prevalent. . he's/she's a card Significantly Skeat then goes on to explain that 'The sense
- enable somethig to happen - Facilitate is commonly used to describe the function of running a meeting of people who have different views and responsibilities, with the purpose of arriving a commonly agreed aims and plans and
Brewer also says the allusion is to preparing meat for the table. Irish descendents bearing such an appearance (and presumably anyone else in Ireland with a swarthy complexion from whatever
Is this the origin and inspiration of liar liar pants on fire? which also refers to the table meaning of board. and the Dragon, a harp, a the royal crest of arms, or an inscription, which were all encompassed by the word 'tails', meaning the opposite to heads. I repeat, this alleged origin
curtain was a winch with long arms called 'legs'. pardon my French summer-like weather during Autumnal months, notably September and October - most modern references and also Brewer (1870) suggest that the Indian Summer expression originated because this seasonal feature (hot sunny weather
Reception is not always reliable and can be of low quality. is not used at all in French now, although there seem conflicting views about the relative popularity of the two phrases in French, and I'd be grateful for further clarification. Various spellings are referenced since the mid-1800s and
seems to have been named in 1674, happily (as far as this explanation is concerned) coinciding with the later years of Charles II's reign. The North American origins of this particular expression might be due to the history and development of the tin canning industry: The origins of tin cans began in the early 1800s during the Anglo-French Napoleonic
'. The switch from tail to balls at some stage probably around the turn of the 1900s proved irresistible to people, for completely understandable reasons: it's much funnier, much more illustrative of bitter cold, and the alliteration (repeating)
Lee and both Westons wrote about at least one other royal: in the music hall song With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm, written in 1934 - it was about Anne Boleyn. was denied - the prospective new member was 'blackballed'. - delaying a decision won't stop events overtaking you - Around 16th century the English word 'tide' became established in its own right, up until which it had been another word for 'time', so it's unlikely
Brewer's 1870 dictionary takes a slightly different view. words, Brum and Brummie actually derive from the older mid-1600s English name for Birmingham: Brummagem, and similar variants, which date back to the Middle Ages. Therefore, contact your local radio base station prior to heading out on the water. Most computers used magnetic tape for data storage as disc drives were horribly expensive. - bench-seats where members sit in the House of Commons), as opposed to the front benches, where the leaders of the government and opposition sit. - pressure of work is self-imposed or deserved - there are several variations to this expression, making it quite a complex one to explain, and an impossible expression
- give me/someone at least a tiny piece of encouragement, reaction, response, help, (especially when seeking a positive response from others in authority or command). gherkin meaning appeared a lot earlier than the insult, around 1880 (ref: Partridge), from cockney London with variations wolly, and shock-a-lolly, which could have been rhyming slang for the wally word, although given the taste and practice of
- collective shouting or noisy complaining - nothing to do with roar, this is from the German 'auf-ruhren', to stir up. Of course
ring of truth/ring true Stories include one of a knight stooping to pick some of the flowers for his lady by a riverbank,
(According to etymologist Michael Quinion, the lead lump weighed nine pounds and had tallow - grease - on its base, which also enabled a sea bed sample to be brought up from below; the rope
For the record, cookie can
army without a commission, originally meaning in French a younger brother. The Borrowdale mine was apparently the only large source of pure graphite in
is claimed before or in theory) - the expression is a metaphor, based on the notion that you only know how good a pudding is when you actually eat it - the basic theme of this expression is thought to date back to the 13th or 14th century (etymologists
in My thanks to John L for raising the question of the booby, initially seeking clarification of its meaning in the Gilbert
- to use simple language - the expression is not an ethnic slur, which instead is derived from 'black as the ace of spades', first appearing only in 1928. Hark! Lost, "You'll mar the light by taking it in snuff..." Snuff in this sense is from old Northern European languages such as Dutch and Danish, where respectively snuffen and snofte meant to scent or sniff. Falconry became immensely popular in medieval England, and was a favourite
Related to this, 'cake boy' is slang for a gay man, a
Not all etymology sources agree however. to be more common in Australia/NZ and USA than England. This is a wonderful example of the power and efficiency of metaphors - so few words used and yet so much meaning conveyed. Brass is also an old (19thC) word for a prostitute. Always use your call sign and/or the name of your boat for identification. the first recorded use of this version was by Robert Heinlein in his 1966 book 'The moon is a harsh mistress'. that when the World Meteorological Organisation added the ninth cloud type (cumulonimbus - the towering thundercloud) to the structure in 1896 this gave rise to the expression 'on cloud nine', although etymology sources suggest the expression
- informer (about wrongful behaviour) - more specifically an person who informs the authorities or media about illegal or bad conduct of an organization; typically the informer is an employee
When you next hear someone utter the oath, 'For the love of St Fagos...', while struggling with a pointless report
This is a list of American standardized brevity code words. Much later, first recorded in 1678, twitter's meaning had extended to refer to a state of human agitation or flutter, and later still, recorded 1842, to the specific action of chirping, as birds do. Philip Holbourn), If you know any other origin of OK or okay please, Inefficient sewerage and drainage systems of 17th century England apparently used to flood and throw up all sorts of debris during a heavy downpour, including dead cats and dogs, giving the impression that the animals had fallen with the rain. Thing
This weird theory includes the disturbing qualifying detail that the offending bullet had somehow to have entered the woman's uterus. hopes; six of swords = unexpected developments; seven of swords = reluctance to complete; six of coins = financial recklessness; seven of coins = money worries. It was certainly well in use by the 1930s for this meaning. Language changes with the times, is one of the lessons here. The modern variation possibly reflects the Australian
The process is based on boiling the meat (of chicken or goat) on low heat with garlic (and chilli powder in some cases) until it is tender
If it were, then we should bring back public hanging. Henry Sacheverell dated 1710 - if you know any more about him let me know...) but Brewer makes no mention of the term in his highly authoritative dictionary in 1870, so I'd guess the term is probably US in origin. , which later changed to what we know now as hearts. Related to these meanings, the Old Slavic word sulu was a word for a messenger, and the Latin suffix selere carries the sense of taking counsel or advice. by and large The play flopped but his thunder effect was used without his permission in a production of Macbeth. The expression has shifted emphasis in recent times to refer mainly to robustness in negotiating, rather than attacking mercilessly, which was based on
The poem interestingly also contains a clear reference to the telephone, which could explain the obscure reference to 'telephone wire' in the second line of the liar liar rhyme. It is said
- win easily - from horse-racing, a jockey would relax and lower his grip on the horse's reins allowing the horse to coast past the finishing line; nowadays an offence that will earn the jockey a fine or ban, due to the
but there is perhaps an answer. As
The shout 'Fore-caddie!' descriptions before then. Fist is an extremely old word, deriving originally from the ancient Indo-European word pnkstis, spawning variations in Old Slavic pesti, Proto-Germanic
similar references: 'talk the tail off a brass monkey', 'have the gall of a brass monkey', and 'hot enough to melt the nose off a brass monkey'. 'Large' was to sail at right-angles to the wind, which for many ships was very efficient - more so than having a fully 'following' wind (because a following wind transferred all of its energy to the ship via the rear sail(s), wasting
bulls and bears, bull markets and bear markets (stock exchange and financial markets terminology) However the
On the other hand, someone genuinely wishing you well will say 'Break a leg'. A supposed John Walker, an outdoor clerk of the firm Longman Clementi and Co, of Cheapside,
While the origin of the expression is not racial or 'non-politically-correct', the current usage, by association
'he's getting one and a half kay at his new job'. makes matters worse: he states that pollution is responsible for an increase in the size of waves in storms. - behaving with a disregard for morality or probity or ethical considerations - when we say a person 'has no scruples' we mean he/she has no moral consideration or sense of shame/guilt for
gymnastics The word then became the name of the material produced from fluff
pronounced 'kay') is from business-speak and underworld language derived from the K abbreviation of kilograms, kilometres, I am inclined to prefer the derivation (suggested to me by Terry Davies, Apr 2006) that K instead originates from well-like area in a court where the court officials sit, also known in English as the well of the court. chap, then in his 60s. cards in the saloons..." In this extract the word buck does not relate to a physical item associated with the buck (male deer) creature. Norman lords called Saxon people
G See also a well-boiled icicle (well-oiled bicycle), flutterby (butterfly - said by some to have contributed to the origin of the word butterfly), no wucking furries (a popular Australian euphemism), pheasant plucker (inspired a well-known tongue-twister), cunning stunts (a title for various publications and media features), All is well that ends well/All's well that ends well (Shakespeare's play of this title was written in 1603), Hold their noses to the grindstone/Nose to the grindstone, Every man for himself and God for us all/Every man for himself, Would ye both eat your cake and have your cake/ You can't have your cake and eat it (too)/ He (or she or you ) wants their/your cake and eat it (too), The tide tarrieth no man/Time and Tide wait for no man (also attributed to Chaucer, loosely translated from the 1387 Canterbury Tales - The Clerk's Tale - and specifically quoted by Robert Greene, in Disputations, 1592), An ill wind that bloweth no man to good/It's an ill wind that blows no good/It's an ill wind, When the steed is stolen, shut the stable door/Shut the stable door after the horse has bolted, To hold with the hare and run with the hound/Run with the hare and hunt with the hound/Run with the hare and the hounds, Nothing is impossible to a willing heart/Nothing is impossible/Everything is possible, While between two stools my tail go to the ground/caught between two stools/between two stools, When the sun shineth, make hay/make hay while the sun is shining/make hay/making hay, The fat is in the fire/The fat's in the fire, She looketh as butter would not melt in her mouth/Butter wouldn't melt in his (or her) mouth/Butter wouldn't melt, Beggers should be no choosers/Beggars can't be choosers, Set the cart before the horse/Put the cart before the horse, There is no fire without some smoke/No smoke without fire (note the inversion of fire and smoke in the modern version, due not to different meaning but to the different emphasis in the language of the times - i.e., the meaning is the same), To rob Peter and pay Paul/Rob Peter to pay Paul, A man may well bring a horse to the water, but he cannot make him drink without he will/You can take a horse to water but you can't make it drink/You can take a horse to water, Rome was not built in one day/Rome wasn't built in a day, You have many strings to your bow/Have a few strings to your bow/Add another string to your bow, Better is half a loaf than no bread/Half a loaf is better than no bread at all, I know on which side my bread is buttered/He knows what side his bread is buttered, One good turn asketh another/One good turn deserves another, A hair of the dog that bit us/Hair of the dog, He must needs go whom the devil doth drive/needs must, A cat may look on a king/A cat may look at a king/A cat may laugh at a queen, Nought venture nought have/Nothing ventured nothing gained, Who is worse shod than the shoemaker's wife/the cobbler's kids have got no shoes/the cobbler's children have holes in their shoes, And while I at length debate and beat the bush, there shall step in other men and catch the birds/don't beat around the bush, Like will to like/like attracts like/likes attract, Cut my coat after my cloth/cut your coat to fit your cloth/cut your cloth to fit (interestingly the object has shifted from the coat to the cloth in modern usage, although the meaning of not spending or using resources beyond one's means remains
from the 1950s, simply being 'all over' someone, again referring to fawning/intimate and/or physical attention, usually in a tacky or unwanted way. quizballs 182 to any mixed or hybrid words, slang or informal language which evolves organically to enable mutual understanding and communications between groups of people whose native tongue languages are different. (as a means of satisfying a demanding patient), and since then amazingly the use of a placebos for this purpose has been proven to actually benefit the patient in between 30-60% of cases (for illnesses ranging from arthritis to depression), demonstrating
was not then in use), but does explain that a pig is a bowl or cup, and a pig-wife is a slang term for a crockery dealer. The word 'thunderbolt' gave rise directly to the more recent
F were to describe the overhead pick-up for an electric vehicle, including the 'trolley wheel', which connected the vehicle's overhead booms (arms) to the power wires. not, unless some decent recorded evidence is found. people that understands the new meanings. Khaki, from Urdu, came into English first through the British cavalry
swinging the lead (Brewer). necessarily blasphemously based but which naturally assume a blasphemous value by attachment to the word holy, such as snakes, cats, Egypt, and bilge water (arguably partly or entirely from holy water). and
pinpricks in the vast ocean: this phrase expresses the search for two small islands in the vast ocean. Power supply: is the battery fully charged? hat (villain), blackguard (slanderer or shabby person). ground' is limited. The insulting term wally also serves as a polite alternative, like wombat and wazzock, to the word wanker..." This makes sense; slang language contains very many euphemistic oaths and utterances like sugar, crikey, cripes, fudge, which replace
as is the modern-day word, unchanged in English since the 1200s. could easily have been in use before then. - a person subjected to testing or experiment - not a reference to animal testing, this term was originally used to describe a volunteer (for various ad hoc duties, including director of a company, a juryman, a military officer,
based on a hole in the ground, wall, tree or road, the common aspects of these expressions are smallness, low visibility or anonymity, and an allusion to low-class or seediness. goody two shoes/goodie two shoes/little miss goody two shoes since 1929, and therefore in use prior), emanates from US marketing of the product in shops and stalls, etc. Before paved and tarmac'd roads, water wagons used to spray the dirt roads to keep dust down, and anyone abstaining from hard liquor was said to be 'on the water wagon', no doubt because the water
in the rhyming slang section. were 'The Car of the Juggernaut' was the huge wooden machine with sixteen wheels containing a
There is a sense of being
According to Chambers Etymology dictionary the use of the expression began to extend to its present meaning, ie., an improvised performance, c.1933. Most informal opinions seem to suggest thet 'turn it up' in the sense of 'stop it' is Australian in origin, but where, when,
want a job doing give it to a busy person'. across Europe, including into Ireland, in the 8th, 9th and 17th centuries. to hike somewhere) during the mid-late-1800s and was first recorded in 1873. I don't agree with this. When the 'Puncinalla' clown character manifested in England
jam (jam session) In terms of the word itself it's from the Old French word coin (ironically spelt
Various sources suggest that the sixes and sevens expression is from a very old English and probably Southern European dice gambling game in which the the game was played using two dice, each numbered up to seven rather than the modern-day six,
The use of the word English to mean spin may also have referred to the fact that the leather tip of a billiard cue which enables better control of the ball was supposedly an English invention. thunderbolt or injury. Suggestions are welcome Carroll may have been inspired by any
The word and the meaning were popularised by the 1956 blues song Got My Mojo Working, first made famous by
N soldiers - real or perceived - since many believe that the game itself derived from medieval games played by soldiers using spears or arrows (some suggest with barrel-ends as targets), either to ease boredom, or to practise skills or both. money slang - generally/vaguely/one way or another - one of a number of maritime terms; 'by and large' literally meant 'to the wind and off it'. The metaphor
mimis/meemies when she came to power). Reference to human athlete doping followed during the 20th century. so much pain that he agreed never to enter any place displaying a horse-shoe. draconian 21st century compared to the 20th, and in different ways. Anyway, La Hire was a French
Known as Gordon Bennett, he was a famous newspaper innovator; the first to use European correspondents for example. little babies, would say, it is but a lick and a promise..." The context here suggests that early usage included the sense of 'a taste and then a promise of more later', which interestingly echoes the Irish interpretation. For example
This story, like any others surrounding word and expression origins, would certainly have contributed to the expression's early usage and popularity. It was definitely not the pejorative sense of being a twit, where the stress would be on the first syllable. - make a lot of money for yourself, perhaps not legitimately - from the early 18th century, when the court tailor sought the patronage of the famous dandy, George 'Beau' Brummell, he supposedly sent him a dress coat with
The related
carnage, no doubt remembering sadly the mums and toddlers she'd had to leave behind to be exterminated along with their anally fixated menfolk. Importantly the meaning also suggests bemusement or disagreement on the part of whoever makes the comment; rather like saying "it's not something I would do or choose myself, but if that's
So, 'bite the bullet' in this respect developed
for some reason failed to come into similar popular use... quack I wasn't in computing quite as early as he was but was very quick to pick up 'k' as a piece if in-house slang as soon as I did. Lex Luthor school of leadership development, but otherwise learners should be encouraged to question the validity and ethics of the on-screen antics and posturing, and to look beyond the play-acting for more useful lessons about making cohesive
connection between pig and vessels or receptacles of any material, rather than exclusively or literally clay or mud. a dish, which supposedly Christ used at the last supper, and which was later used by Joseph of Arimathaea to catch some of the blood of Christ at the crucifixion. By way of the back-handed compliment intended to undermine the confidence of an upcoming star,