‘all one’s Christmases come at once’: early occurrences
one is experiencing remarkably good fortune; one has everything one could have wished or hoped for—Australia, 1932
Read MoreAuthor: Pascal Tréguer
notes on ‘see you later, agitator’
USA, 1956—jocular variant of equally jocular ‘see you later, alligator’ (1952)—recoined on separate occasions by various persons, independently from one another
Read Morethe anti-nuclear phrase ‘one flash and you’re ash’
Australia, 1953—slogan used by opponents of nuclear weapons—also used in New Zealand
Read More‘to go to Lilywhite’s party’: meaning and origin
USA, 1887—of a child: to go to bed—‘Lilywhite’ refers to the whiteness of the bedsheets—from ‘lily-white’, meaning ‘white as a lily’, hence ‘of a pure white’
Read More‘you can’t tell the mind of a squid’: meaning and origin
Newfoundland, 1958—used of someone or something that is unreliable—refers to the fact that a squid moves backwards and forwards
Read More‘don’t hold your breath’: meaning and origin
don’t wait in anxious anticipation—USA, 1854—the image is of somebody holding their breath when anxious or excited about something
Read More‘who says romance is dead?’: meaning and early occurrences
used ironically of something regarded as prosaic or even thoroughly vulgar—USA, 1869—‘romance’: romantic love idealised for its purity or beauty
Read More‘Flypaper Act’ | ‘to be under, or on, the flypaper’
UK slang, 1906—‘Flypaper Act’: the Prevention of Crimes Act—‘to be under, or on, the flypaper’: to be subject to the Prevention of Crimes Act
Read More‘hell hath no fury like a woman’s corns’
Ireland, 1845: ‘hell has no fury like a woman corned’—puns on ‘hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’, which refers to Congreve’s ‘The Mourning Bride’ (1697)
Read More‘the squire has been foully murdered’: meaning, origin
UK, 1918—popular among British soldiers during WWI—satirises “the squire has been foully murdered”, a topos from late-Victorian and Edwardian melodrama
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