‘to shock the bourgeois’: meaning and origin
to shake or shock traditional ethical and/or artistic middle-class attitudes—UK, 1874—perhaps a loan translation from French ‘choquer le(s) bourgeois’—France, 1858
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‘épater le(s) bourgeois’: meaning and origin
to shake or shock traditional ethical and/or artistic middle-class attitudes—UK, 1882—a borrowing from French—France, 1854
Read More‘the green fairy’: meaning and origin
absinthe—UK, 1882—loan translation from French ‘la fée verte’ (1864)—‘fée’ refers to the potency of absinthe, which induces an altered state of consciousness
Read More‘oo-la-la land’: meaning and origin
a humorous appellation for France—USA, 1921—‘oo-la-la’ (from the French interjection ‘oh là là’) is stereotypically associated with France
Read More‘horse doovers’: meaning and origin
UK, 1851, as ‘haw-doovers’—humorous and colloquial alteration of ‘hors d’oeuvres’, plural of the noun ‘hors d’oeuvre’ (i.e.: an extra dish served as a relish to whet the appetite usually before the main meal)
Read More‘musical chairs’ | ‘chaises musicales’: original meaning and early occurrences
UK, 1865—a Christmas-season party game in which players walk around a decreasing number of chairs while music is played, the loser in each round being the one who fails to find a seat when the music stops
Read More‘free shave tomorrow’: meanings and origin
USA, 1871—is used of any incentive or reward that is perpetually promised but never actually delivered—refers to a sign displayed as an advertisement for a barber’s shop
Read More‘nation of shopkeepers’: meaning and origin
UK, 1759: first applied to Japan—1794 (during the French Revolution): the disparaging use in reference to Britain was popularised by the French phrase ‘nation boutiquière’
Read More‘history is but a fable agreed upon’: meaning and origin
1777, in a translation of a letter written by Voltaire in 1768—a loan translation from French ‘l’histoire n’est qu’une fable convenue’, first used in 1758 by the French philosopher Claude Adrien Helvétius
Read More‘mauvaise langue’: meanings and origin
UK, 1822—a vituperative gossip, a scandalmonger; an evil or malicious tongue—a borrowing from French ‘mauvaise langue’ (literally ‘bad tongue’) of same significations
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