“ad fontes!”
Greek ‘δορυϕόρος’ (‘doruphόros’) meant ‘spearman’; in French, ‘doryphore’ denotes the Colorado beetle and the German occupying forces during WWII; in English, it denotes a pedantic and annoyingly persistent critic.
Read More‘queen’s’, or ‘king’s’, ‘cushion’: a seat made by two people who cross arms and hold each other’s hands to form a support for another person—Scotland and northern England, 19th century
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from Speed the Plough (1798), by Thomas Morton; Dame Ashfield is constantly fearing to give occasion for the sneers of Mrs Grundy, her unseen neighbour
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apparently misattributed to Andy Warhol in the book published for the first European retrospective of his work at the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden, in 1968
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UK, 1929—the attitudes, loyalties, values, etc., associated with British public schools—from the distinctive tie that indicates which school the wearer attended
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late Middle English—early form of ‘Bethlehem’, originally referring to the Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem in London, used as an institution for the insane
Read MoreUSA, 1959—‘like watching paint dry’ or ‘as —— as watching paint dry’:used to denote an extremely dull activity or experience
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US, 1958: security blanket—from ‘Linus’, the name of a small boy who carries a blanket for comfort in the comic strip ‘Peanuts’, by Charles M. Schulz
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Opportunity was represented as woman completely bald except for a forelock: she can only be seized as she runs towards someone, not be caught thereafter.
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‘the answer to a maiden’s prayer’—primary meaning (USA, 1926): ‘an eligible bachelor’—hence, in extended use, ‘a miracle solution’
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word histories 