‘the clean potato’: meaning and origin
the very, the real, or the proper person or thing—1830—of Scottish or Irish origin—perhaps an extended form of the synonymous phrase ‘the potato’
Read More‘nuppence’: meaning and origin
no money, nothing—UK, 1864, in a text by the British scholar D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson—from ‘n-’ in the determiner ‘no’, meaning ‘not any’, and ‘-uppence’ in ‘tuppence’
Read More‘squeeze pidgin’: meaning and origin
China, 1849—extortion—from ‘squeeze’, denoting a forced exaction or impost made by a Chinese official or servant, and ‘pidgin’ in its original sense of business
Read More‘pan-loafy’: meaning and origin
Scotland, 1941—of a person, manner of speaking, etc.: affectedly refined or cultivated, pretentious—from the fact that a pan-loaf (i.e., a loaf baked in a pan or tin, having a hard, smooth crust), being more expensive than a plain loaf, was considered a sign of affluence
Read More‘Mexican standoff’: meaning and origin
a situation in which neither side in an argument or contest can win—in early use: a situation in which a person loses their money, but saves their life—origin: an 1876 story in which a Mexican bandit robs a traveller from the USA, but lets him escape with his life
Read More‘sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me’
UK, 1857—This phrase was originally used by children to express or encourage an attitude of indifference to taunts, insults or other verbal abuse.
Read More‘red on the map’ | ‘to paint the map red’: meanings and origin
UK, 19th century—‘red on the map’: the colonies and dominions of the British Empire—‘to paint the map red’: to expand the territory of the British Empire—from the colour used to represent British colonies and dominions on maps
Read More‘toffee-nosed’: meaning and origin
UK, 1914—snobbish or supercilious—refers perhaps to ‘toff’, denoting a fashionable upper-class person—the image is perhaps of someone who, considering themself superior, keeps their nose high in contempt for the lower classes—cf. the form ‘toffy-nosed’ (1919)
Read More‘pound-noteish’: meaning and origin
UK, 1927—affected, pompous—from ‘pound note’ and the suffix ‘-ish’, meaning ‘having the qualities of’—the image is probably of someone who pretends to be worth a pound sterling when they are actually worth less
Read More‘to pile Pelion upon Ossa’: meanings and origin
1609—to add to what is already great, also to add difficulty to difficulty—Pelion and Ossa are two mountains in Thessaly—in Greek mythology, two giants, Otus and Ephialtes, tried to pile Pelion and Ossa on Olympus in order to reach the gods and overthrow them
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