‘that Kruschen feeling’: meaning and origin
great vitality, enthusiasm and liveliness—UK, 1922—originally (from 1921 onwards) used in the advertisements for Kruschen Salts
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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 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‘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
Read Morenotes on the British phrase ‘I’ve started, so I’ll finish’
gained currency from its use by Magnus Magnusson on the BBC-Television quiz programme ‘Mastermind’, which he presented from its creation in 1972 until 1997
Read Moremeaning of ‘hit me now with the child in my arms’
Irish-English phrase—first recorded in 1892—used to express pretended fear of, and/or provocation to, a physical attack
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word histories 