‘gelotometre’: meaning and origin
a notional laughter gauge—UK, 1828, coined by Walter Savage Landor—from ancient Greek ‘γέλωτ-’(i.e., ‘gélōt-’), meaning laughter, and the suffix ‘-metre’, forming nouns designating measuring instruments
Read More‘one might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb’: meaning and origin
if the punishment for a minor wrongdoing is to be the same as for a major one, there is no reason for not committing the greater offence—1678 in a collection of proverbs
Read More‘truth or dare’: meaning and origin
USA, 1927—a game in which each participant, in turn, has to either answer truthfully a question put to him or her by one of the other players, or fulfil an alternative requirement put to him or her by one of the other players
Read More‘whingebag’: meaning and origin
a person who habitually complains or whines—UK, 1985—one of the compounds in which the second element ‘bag’ denotes a person displaying the undesirable quality denoted by the first element
Read More‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’: meaning and origin
USA, 1962—if something is successful, effective or not obviously defective, there is no need to change or replace it
Read More‘to burn one’s bridges behind one’: meaning and origin
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
Read More‘Froggy-land’: meaning and origin
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 More‘to cross a bridge when one comes to it’: meaning and origin
to 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 More‘café-hopping’: original meaning
USA, 1917—the practice of enjoying the nightlife of a city or town by visiting multiple bars and nightclubs
Read More‘to shock the bourgeois’: meaning and origin
to 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
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