‘to stir the possum’: meaning and origin
Australia, 1888—to stir up controversy; to liven things up—also ‘to rouse the possum’ (Australia, 1898)—this phrase probably developed as the obverse of ‘to play possum’
Read MoreCategory: Australia & New Zealand
‘to be packed like sardines’: meaning and origin
UK, 1841—to be crowded or confined tightly together, as sardines in a tin
Read More‘babyccino’: meanings and origin
a drink of frothy milk, designed as an alternative to coffee for young children—also: a small cup of cappuccino—Australia, 1995—from ‘baby’ and ‘‑ccino’ in ‘cappuccino’
Read More‘not on your nelly’: meaning and origin
‘not under any circumstances’—Royal Air Force slang, 1942—short for ‘not on your Nelly Duff’, i.e., ‘not on your life’, ‘Nelly Duff’ being rhyming slang for ‘puff’ as used colloquially in the sense of ‘life’
Read More‘like a rat up a drainpipe’: meanings and origin
very quickly; also, very energetically—Australia, 1881, as ‘like a rat up a pump’
Read More‘Jeeves-like’: meaning and origin
Canada, 1928—resembling Jeeves, the perfect valet in stories by the English author Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (1881-1975); this fictional character first appeared in 1915
Read More‘to do a vanishing act’: meanings and origin
late 19th century—to disappear suddenly without leaving information about one’s whereabouts—from conjuring, in which ‘vanishing act’ designates an act of making a person or thing disappear as if by magic, and an act of disappearing in this manner
Read More‘to stick out a mile’: meaning and origin
New Zealand, 1883, as ‘to stick out half a mile’—to be very prominent or conspicuous
Read More‘dillbrain’: meaning and origin
Australia, 1943—a foolish or silly person—from the synonymous noun ‘dill’ (1933), itself apparently a back-formation from the adjective ‘dilly’, meaning ‘foolish’, ‘silly’
Read More‘slanguist’: meanings and origin
USA, 1871: a person who frequently uses or coins slang words and phrases—USA, 1926: a person who studies the use and historical development of slang—blend of the nouns ‘slang’ and ‘linguist’
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