“ad fontes!”
someone or something that is fashionably or artfully dishevelled or dilapidated—in early use: someone or something whose dishevelment or dilapidation is unintentionally attractive or fashionable—USA, 1901
Read Moreeasily, readily—UK, 1825
Read Morealso ‘like water from a duck’s back’—UK, 1801—with no effect or reaction
Read More1680—also ‘would a duck swim?’ and ‘does a duck swim?’—expresses enthusiastic acceptance or confirmation
Read Morehas been used with reference to feebleness and ineffectualness since the late 19th century
Read Moreextremely drunk—Australia, 1892, as ‘drunk as an ant’—USA, 1925, as ‘drunk as a pissant’ in Manhattan Transfer, by John Dos Passos
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UK, 1919—a thick brown meat-based soup of a type now often depreciatively depicted as emblematic of traditional British cookery
Read MoreAustralia, 1911—a potato farmer—composed of ‘spud’ (a potato) and ‘cocky’ (a farmer working a small-scale farm)—‘cocky’: shortened form of ‘cockatoo’ (a farmer working a small-scale farm)
Read MoreBritish slang, 1960s—‘to disappear up one’s own arse’: to become self-involved, pretentious or conceited—‘to be up one’s own arse’: to be self-involved, pretentious or conceited
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Australia, 1950—UK, 1962—derogatory and offensive: a middle-aged or elderly woman, especially one who is unattractive or unfeminine—refers to ‘boiler’, i.e., a tough old chicken for cooking by boiling
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word histories 