“ad fontes!”
USA, 1898—a view as seen from below or from a humble position—refers to a view taken as from the standpoint of a worm, i.e. from ground-level—coined after ‘bird’s-eye view’ (1782), denoting a view of a landscape from above, such as is presented to the eye of a bird
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refers to “All right, have it your own way—you heard a seal bark”, the caption to a drawing by James Thurber, originally published in The New Yorker of 30th January 1932
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used of images suggestive of real or imaginary events—UK and USA early 1900s: popularised by its use as an advertising slogan for Doan’s Backache Kidney Pills
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USA, 1902—jocularly used to justify the necessity of taking another alcoholic drink—Irish variant (1947): ‘a bird never flew on one wing’
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“half a moment, Kaiser!”—1914 as the caption to a drawing by Bert Thomas, published in the Weekly Dispatch (London) to advertise a tobacco fund for soldiers
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coined by the English playwright Terence Rattigan (1911-1977) in the preface to Volume 2 of ‘The Collected Plays of Terence Rattigan’ (1953)
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UK, 18th and 19th centuries—‘trunkmaker’ was often employed with allusion to the use of the sheets of unsaleable books for trunk-linings
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UK, 1913—industrial mills—working places characterised by dehumanising forms of labour—from ‘And did those feet in ancient time’, by the English poet William Blake
Read Moree.g. ‘one eye at St. Paul’s and the other at Charing-cross’, ‘un œil aux champs et l’autre à la ville’ (one eye at the fields and the other at the town)
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UK, 1877—a person who wields unofficial power and influence—originally applied to Père Joseph (François Leclerc du Tremblay), French friar, confidential agent of Cardinal Richelieu
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word histories 