‘mell of a hess’: meaning and origin
a complete mess—USA, 1906—humorous euphemistic transposition of the initial letters of the nouns composing the phrase ‘hell of a mess’
Read More‘air guitar’ | ‘air band’: meanings and early occurrences
‘air guitar’: an imaginary guitar played by miming, especially to rock music—‘air band’: a pretend rock band whose members mime the action of playing imaginary instruments—USA, 1978
Read More‘to rally round the flag’: meaning and origin
(of a group) to demonstrate loyalty to the nation or to a cause, especially at a time of perceived threat—UK, 1793, as ‘to rally round the standard’
Read More‘lust at first sight’: meaning and origin
USA, 1914—an instant, strong sexual desire for someone whom one has never previously seen—humorous variant of ‘love at first sight’
Read More‘love in a cottage’: meaning and origin
a marriage for love, or a romantic relationship, faced with insufficient financial means—UK, 1745
Read More‘dead from the neck up’: meaning and origin
also ‘dead from the chin up’—completely stupid—USA, 1870—alludes to being brain-dead
Read More‘romantasy’: meanings and origin
a fantastical or idealised story, situation, etc., involving romance—USA, 1928—a blend of either the noun ‘romance’ or the adjective ‘romantic’, and of the noun ‘fantasy’
Read More‘(as) extinct as the diplodocus’: meaning and origin
of a person or thing: irretrievably defunct or out of date—UK, 1905—perhaps originally in allusion to ‘Diplodocus Carnegii’, named after Andrew Carnegie, who, that year, presented the skeleton of that diplodocus to the Natural History Museum of London
Read More‘Charlie (Big) Potatoes’: meaning and origin
a rich and important man—USA, 1958, as ‘Charlie Potatoes’—UK, 1995, as ‘Charlie Big Potatoes’— ‘Charlie’: generic term for a man—‘potatoes’: perhaps slang for ‘money’, ‘dollars’
Read More‘to make a horlicks of (something)’: meaning and origin
to make a mess of (something)—UK, 1970—used in reference to the trade-name of a malted milk-powder—perhaps as a euphemism for some crude word
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