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word histories

Category: French/English

history of the phrase ‘c’est la guerre’ (‘it can’t be helped’)

5th Dec 2019.Reading time 17 minutes.

UK and USA, World War One—borrowing from French, literally ‘it is war’—expresses acceptance of, or resignation at, the situation engendered by war

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‘great minds think alike’ | ‘les grands esprits se rencontrent’

28th Nov 2019.Reading time 8 minutes.

English phrase (1728) preceded by ‘good wits jump’, i.e. ‘agree’ (1618)—French phrase (1775) preceded by ‘les beaux esprits se rencontrent’ (1686)

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history of the phrase ‘close your eyes and think of England’

27th Nov 2019.Reading time 15 minutes.

France, 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

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‘Charlie’s dead’ (your petticoat is showing)

18th Nov 2019.Reading time 12 minutes.

UK, 1950s—used among schoolgirls when one’s petticoat was showing (origin unknown)—synonyms: ‘it’s snowing again’, ‘you’re showing next week’s washing’

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meanings and origin of ‘the angels’ share’

4th Nov 2019.Reading time 6 minutes.

UK, 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’

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‘wallflower’ | ‘faire tapisserie’: on the fringes of a dance

3rd Nov 2019.Reading time 5 minutes.

UK 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

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notes on the earliest mention of a drink called ‘cocktail’

15th Sep 2019.Reading time 13 minutes.

UK, 1798—‘cocktail’ explained as being “vulgarly called ginger”—perhaps from the use of ‘ginger’ to denote a cock with red plumage

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the curious origin of ‘cordon bleu’ (first-class cook)

7th Sep 2019.Reading time 8 minutes.

originally 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

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notes on ‘Chernobyl’: biblical prophecy | cultural disaster

31st Aug 2019.Reading time 15 minutes.

site 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

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‘the beast with two backs’ | ‘la bête à deux dos’

27th Aug 2019.Reading time 10 minutes.

a 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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