‘dangling participle’: meaning and origin
USA, 1890—a participle, often found at the beginning of a sentence, that appears from its position to modify an element of the sentence other than the one it was intended to modify
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‘Gloria Soame’: meaning and origin
Australia, 1965—the Strine equivalent of ‘glorious home’—‘Strine’: the English language as spoken by Australians
Read More‘Aqua Libra’: meaning and origin
proprietary name for a soft drink supposed to maintain or restore the body’s alkaline balance—Ireland & UK, 1986—from the Latin nouns ‘aqua’ (water) and ‘libra’ (a balance)
Read More‘eureka moment’: meaning and origin
a moment of sudden discovery, inspiration or insight—1918—from the reputed exclamation of Archimedes when he realised that the volume of a solid could be calculated by measuring the water displaced when it was immersed
Read More‘daffynition’: meaning and origin
a humorous redefinition of an existing word or phrase, presented as a dictionary definition—USA, 1910—a blend of the adjective ‘daffy’ and of the noun ‘definition’
Read More‘slanguist’: meanings and origin
USA, 1871: a person who frequently uses or coins slang words and phrases—USA, 1926: a person who studies the use and historical development of slang—blend of the nouns ‘slang’ and ‘linguist’
Read More‘on one’s Jack Jones’: meaning and origin
‘on one’s own’—UK, 1926—‘Jack Jones’ is rhyming slang for ‘alone’, or for ‘own’ in ‘on one’s own’
Read More‘taliswoman’: meanings and origin
UK, 1856—a talisman associated with a woman—a woman likened to a talisman, especially a female sports player regarded as the leading representative of her team—alteration of ‘talisman’ with substitution of ‘woman’ for the element ‘‑man’
Read More‘to embiggen’: meaning and origin
to make bigger or greater, to enlarge—UK, 1884, as a translation of ancient Greek ‘μεγαλύνειν’ as used in the Acts of the Apostles, 5:13—recoined in 1996 in the U.S. animated television series The Simpsons
Read More‘technosaur’: meaning and origin
a person who shows no proficiency in the use of information technology—USA, 1998—from ‘techno-’ in ‘technological’ and ‘technology’, and ‘-saur’ in ‘dinosaur’, i.e., a person who is unable to adapt to change
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