USA, 1942—over-ready to shoot at anything at any time or on slight provocation—during and following WWII, ‘happy’ was used as the second element in compound adjectives relating to mental instability associated with the first element
Read MoreUSA, 1938—unemployment insurance, and, broadly, any benefit paid to someone who is not working
Read MoreUSA—1901 as ‘rocking-chair work’—1907 as ‘rocking-chair job’—a sinecure, i.e., an office or position providing an income or other advantage but requiring little or no work
Read MoreUSA, 1966—a restaurant that features scantily-clad waitresses—especially associated with the restaurant chain Hooters—also: a woman who breastfeeds, or the breast of a woman who breastfeeds
Read MoreU.S.A, 1932—also ‘the land of nuts and fruits’—a humorous, sometimes derogatory, appellation for the U.S. state of California—refers to California’s agricultural bounties and to Californians regarded as being ‘nuts’, i.e., crazy
Read MoreUSA, 1975—especially used of a firm—to divulge information or secrets—based on the notion of opening one’s kimono and revealing one’s naked body
Read More1993—Used of the coach or manager of a soccer team, the British- and Irish-English phrase ‘to lose the dressing room’ means to lose the players’ respect.
Read MoreUK, 1996—an unscheduled extra day’s leave from work, taken to alleviate stress or pressure and sanctioned by one’s employer
Read MoreAustralia, 1996—a day spent in bed in order to restore one’s spirits; an unscheduled extra day’s leave from work, taken to alleviate stress or pressure and sanctioned by one’s employer—from ‘Doona’, a proprietary name for an eiderdown or duvet, hence a generic term for any eiderdown or duvet
Read MoreUK, 1978—(soccer players) a confrontation that does not lead to serious fighting—based on the cliché ‘pistols at ten paces’—the substitution of ‘pistols’ with ‘handbags’, which evokes women fighting with their handbags, expresses the histrionic character of the confrontation
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word histories 