“ad fontes!”
to commit oneself to a course from which there is no retreat—U.S. politics, 1852—from a military tactic in which an army cuts off its means of retreat by destroying the route by which it might be pursued
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UK, 19th century—a humorous appellation for France—from the noun ‘Froggy’, designating a French person—but ‘froggy land’, with lower-case initials, was originally used of any wetland
Read Moreto deal with a problem when and if it arises, but not beforehand—11th January 1849 in The Independent (New York City, New York, USA)
Read MoreUSA, 1917—the practice of enjoying the nightlife of a city or town by visiting multiple bars and nightclubs
Read Moreto shake or shock traditional ethical and/or artistic middle-class attitudes—UK, 1874—perhaps a loan translation from French ‘choquer le(s) bourgeois’—France, 1858
Read Moreto shake or shock traditional ethical and/or artistic middle-class attitudes—UK, 1882—a borrowing from French—France, 1854
Read Moreabsinthe—UK, 1882—loan translation from French ‘la fée verte’ (1864)—‘fée’ refers to the potency of absinthe, which induces an altered state of consciousness
Read Morechiefly Irish—to lose one’s composure, to be extremely upset—UK, 1970—probably a humorous play on ‘to have a coronary’ (i.e., to have a heart attack)
Read MoreUSA, 1923: a court in which a perpetrator of a minor offence may sentence themself and their fellow offenders—USA, 1925: a court in which a perpetrator of a minor offence may pay a fixed fine without having to stand trial
Read Moresomething or someone that is unalloyed, throughgoing, trustworthy—USA, 1848—refers to gold with the complete purity of twenty-four parts out of twenty-four
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