“ad fontes!”
USA, 1906: a female attendant who shows people to their seats in a church—USA, 1907: a female usher at Oscar Hammerstein’s Manhattan Opera House—from ‘usher’ and the suffix ‘-ette’, forming nouns denoting women or girls linked with, or carrying out a role indicated by, the first element
Read MoreUK, 1915—a female worker in a munitions factory, especially during the First World War (1914-18)—from ‘munition’ and the suffix ‘-ette’, denoting women or girls linked with, or carrying out a role indicated by, the first element
Read MoreUK, 1860: used specifically of the political and commercial uniqueness or isolation of the United Kingdom—but used earlier, more generally, in reference to being cut off from one’s kind or from the rest of the world
Read MoreUK, 1839—France, 1843—the best people in a group, or the best type of a particular thing—a borrowing from French ‘crème de la crème’, literally ‘cream of the cream’
Read MoreUSA, 1986—consent by nearby residents to the siting of something despite the fact that they perceive it as unpleasant or hazardous—acronym from ‘yes in my back yard’, after ‘NIMBY’
Read MoreAustralia, 1865 (nonce-use): the process of turning into a person of high social rank—UK, 1964 (coined by sociologist Ruth Glass): the process whereby middle-class people take up residence in a traditionally working-class area of a city
Read Morealso ‘ring (a)round the bath(tub)’—USA, 1914—a dirty water-level mark left on the inside of a bathtub after it has been drained, caused by a combination of hard water and a build-up of soap scum, oils from bath products, etc.
Read More
has been colloquially used to express a great variety of notions, in particular ugliness and madness, but also unpleasantness, unpredictableness, agitation, disturbance, etc.
Read Morea person embodying the civilised qualities supposedly characteristic of both an officer in the armed forces and a gentleman—UK, 1749, in the Articles of War
Read Morethe educated sections of society, considered as enjoying discussion of political, social and cultural issues—coined in 1980 by British journalist Frank Johnson, but had occasionally occurred from 1840 onwards
Read More
word histories 