early meanings of the portmanteau ‘screenager’
USA—blend of ‘screen’ and ‘teenager’—(1957) teenagers reacting to a movie—(1985) teenagers as represented by TV and cinema
Read More“ad fontes!”
USA—blend of ‘screen’ and ‘teenager’—(1957) teenagers reacting to a movie—(1985) teenagers as represented by TV and cinema
Read Morefirst attested in David Balfour (1893), by Robert Louis Stevenson—French equivalent ‘connaître comme sa/ses poche(s)’ (‘to know like one’s pocket(s)’ – 1791)
Read MoreThe Guardian, UK, 23 May 1978—used by one Lionel Bloch to designate—and denounce—the rhetoric employed by the advocates of the communist regimes
Read More1974—coined by the Irish journalist John Healy with reference to the Troubles in Northern Ireland
Read More1825, Anglo-Irish alteration of ‘by Jesus’—1867 as one word—‘the bejesus out of’ (1931) intensifies the action conveyed by the preceding verb
Read MoreWhy is the element one in words such as alone and only not pronounced like the numeral one? Both the indefinite article an (a before consonant) and the numeral one are from Old English ān—which has survived in Scotland as ane, used both as indefinite article and as numeral. This Old-English word ān meant a/an, one, […]
Read MoreScotland, 1749—from the idea of daring to grab a lion’s “beard” and figurative uses of ‘beard’: (verb) ‘confront’ – (noun) ‘face’
Read MoreUK slang, 1936—emphatic agreement, though often ironical—‘cocoa’ is said to be rhyming slang for ‘so’ in ‘I should say so’
Read Morevery fast, or very hard—UK, 1942, RAF slang—alludes to the moving metal piece within a bell, which strikes it and produces the sound
Read MoreUK, 1948—USA, 1952—from the image of the over-cautious man who wears both a belt and braces/suspenders to hold up his trousers
Read More