history of the phrase ‘c’est la guerre’ (‘it can’t be helped’)
UK and USA, World War One—borrowing from French, literally ‘it is war’—expresses acceptance of, or resignation at, the situation engendered by war
Read MoreUK and USA, World War One—borrowing from French, literally ‘it is war’—expresses acceptance of, or resignation at, the situation engendered by war
Read MoreEnglish phrase (1728) preceded by ‘good wits jump’, i.e. ‘agree’ (1618)—French phrase (1775) preceded by ‘les beaux esprits se rencontrent’ (1686)
Read MoreFrance, 1954: purported advice given to English brides-to-be on how to cope with unwanted but inevitable sexual intercourse—but this occurs in a humoristic book
Read MoreUK, 1950s—used among schoolgirls when one’s petticoat was showing (origin unknown)—synonyms: ‘it’s snowing again’, ‘you’re showing next week’s washing’
Read MoreUK, 1970—the quantity of distilled spirits lost to evaporation while ageing in wooden casks; the vapours resulting from this process—calque of French ‘la part des anges’
Read MoreUK 1801 ‘wallflower’—France 1806 ‘faire tapisserie’ (= ‘to do tapestry’)—in both cases because the person keeps their seat at the side of a room during dancing
Read MoreUK, 1798—‘cocktail’ explained as being “vulgarly called ginger”—perhaps from the use of ‘ginger’ to denote a cock with red plumage
Read Moreoriginally the sky-blue ribbon worn by the Knights-grand-cross of the French order of the Holy Ghost—applied by extension to other first-class distinctions
Read Moresite of a nuclear power station accident (1986)—name associated with the end of the world in the Bible—epithet for Disneyland Paris, seen as a cultural disaster
Read Morea man and woman in the act of copulation—English: earliest in Shakespeare’s Othello—perhaps a calque of French: earliest in Rabelais’s Gargantua (1542)
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