‘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of a person or thing: irretrievably defunct or out of date—UK, 1905—perhaps originally in allusion to ‘Diplodocus Carnegii’, named after Andrew Carnegie, who, that year, presented the skeleton of that diplodocus to the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
Read More‘jobsworth’: meaning and origin
a person in authority who insists on adhering to rules even at the expense of common sense—1965, in the British pop-music milieu—from ‘job’s worth’ in the phrase ‘to be more than one’s job’s worth’
Read More‘I wouldn’t piss on (a person) if (that person) were on fire’: meaning and origin
‘I feel intense dislike or contempt for (a person)’—USA, 1950—also occasionally used of miserliness
Read More‘cardbordeaux’: meaning and origin
bag-in-box wine—USA, 2006—a blend of ‘cardboard’ (in reference to the outer packaging of bag-in-box wine) and of ‘Bordeaux’ (in reference to the wine made in the Bordeaux region of France)
Read More‘Chateau Cardboard’: meaning and origin
bag-in-box wine—South Africa, 1983—based on the contrast between ‘château’ (referring to expensive wines of superior quality) and ‘cardboard’ (referring to inexpensive bag-in-box wines)
Read More‘scumbag’: meanings and origin
USA, 1953: a base, despicable person—from ‘scumbag’ in the sense of ‘a condom’ (here, the noun ‘scum’ is slang for ‘semen’)
Read More‘to put a zipper on somebody’s mouth’: meaning and origin
to make somebody stop talking, or to prevent somebody from talking—USA, 1930—refers to the noun ‘zipper’, designating a fastening device
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word histories 