‘penny-a-line’: meanings and origin
UK, early 19th century, derogatory—used attributively of a journalist who was paid at the rate of a penny a line, hence also of low-quality writing
Read More‘kiss-me-quick’ (curl): meaning and origin
UK, mid-19th century—a circular curl of hair (sometimes artificial), usually pressed flat against the temple or forehead
Read More‘kiss-me-quick’ (bonnet): meaning and origin
mid-19th century—a small bonnet standing far back on the head, which was then fashionable—also occasionally in the extended form ‘kiss-me-quick, mother’s coming’
Read More‘kiss-curl’: meaning and origin
Australia & UK, 1856—a circular curl of hair (sometimes artificial), usually pressed flat against the temple or forehead
Read More‘telenovela’: meaning and origin
a Latin-American television soap opera—from American-Spanish ‘tele-’ (in ‘televisión’) and ‘novela’ (‘a novel’)—1959 in American Spanish, 1961 in American English
Read More‘spy in the cab’: meaning and origin
a tachograph—coined in Manchester (England), in September 1968, by lorry drivers who opposed the proposed introduction of the tachograph into lorries
Read More‘to live in each other’s pockets’: meaning and early occurrences
to live in excessively close proximity or interdependence—1762: “the company squeezed themselves into one another’s pockets” in a letter by Horace Walpole
Read More‘coffee royal’ | ‘café royale’: meaning and origin
a drink made from black coffee and brandy, cognac or other liquor—‘royale’ means: first-rate—‘café royale’ (USA, 1882): probably a Frenchification of earlier ‘coffee royal’
Read More‘kir royale’: meaning and origin
USA, 1974, as ‘royale kir’—a drink made from champagne, or sparkling white wine, and crème de cassis—from ‘kir’ (a drink made from dry white wine and crème de cassis) and ‘royale’ (first-rate)
Read More‘cradle Anglican’: meaning and origin
Canada, 1985—one who is born into the Anglican Church (i.e., an Anglican ‘from the cradle’)
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