‘Absurdistan’: meanings and origin

30th Jul 2022.Reading time 13 minutes.

a country characterised by absurdity—originally used of Czechoslovakia—the suffix ‘-istan’ (in country names such as ‘Pakistan’) is used as the second element in satirical names denoting, in particular, ‘a country characterised by [the first element]’

‘bullycide’: meaning and origin

28th Jul 2022.Reading time 7 minutes.

suicide committed by a person, especially a child or young adult, as a result of being bullied—blend of the nouns ‘bully’ and ‘suicide’—coined since 2001 on separate occasions by various persons, independently from one another

‘Socceroo’: meaning and origin

23rd Jul 2022.Reading time 5 minutes.

(plural) the Australian men’s national soccer team; (singular) a member of this team—originated in 1972 as the name of the mascot of the Australian men’s national soccer team, created for the 1974 FIFA World Cup

‘charity dame’ | ‘charity moll’: meaning and origin

12th Jul 2022.Reading time 13 minutes.

Australia—‘charity dame’ 1949—‘charity moll’ 1962—an amateur prostitute who charges less than the usual rate—from ‘Moll’, pet form of the female forename ‘Mary’, the noun ‘moll’ has long been used to designate a prostitute

‘to play a good knife and fork’: meaning and early occurrences

2nd Jun 2022.Reading time 7 minutes.

to eat heartily—first occurs in Augusta Triumphans: Or, The Way to make London the most flourishing City in the Universe (1728), by Daniel Defoe

‘Madchester’: meaning and origin

4th May 2022.Reading time 7 minutes.

UK, 1989—refers to Manchester, in north-western England, as a centre of popular music and club subculture in Britain in the late 1980s and early 1990s—blend of ‘mad’ and ‘Manchester’

‘porky’ (rhyming slang for ‘lie’)

3rd May 2022.Reading time 8 minutes.

In British English, the noun ‘porky’ (also ‘porkie’) is short for ‘porky pie’ (also ‘porkie pie’), which is an alteration of ‘pork pie’, rhyming slang for the noun ‘lie’.

‘Taffia’: meaning and origin

1st Apr 2022.Reading time 6 minutes.

UK, 1974—applied jocularly to any supposed network of prominent or influential Welsh people, especially one which is strongly nationalistic—a blend of ‘Taffy’, denoting a Welshman, and ‘Mafia’

‘powfagged’: meaning and origin

18th Mar 2022.Reading time 7 minutes.

meaning: ‘extremely tired’—origin (Lancashire, England, 1859): from the noun ‘pow’, variant of ‘poll’, denoting ‘a person’s head’, and the adjective ‘fagged’, meaning ‘extremely tired’

notes on the noun ‘Goddam’

17th Mar 2022.Reading time 10 minutes.

designates an Englishman—originated among the French, from the fact that they regarded the exclamation ‘God damn’ as characteristic of the English—the Middle-French synonym ‘godon’ may be etymologically unrelated

word histories

Category: linguistics