“ad fontes!”
The phrase (as) happy (or jolly) as a sandboy means extremely happy or carefree—cf. also happy as a clam and happy as Larry. A sandboy was a boy hawking sand for sale. It seems that the earliest use of the word is The Rider and Sand-boy: a Tale, the title of a poem written by a certain Mr Meyler and published in Harvest-Home in 1805: […]
Read MoreThe phrase there’s no, or little, or not much, love lost between means there is mutual dislike between. This expression is ambiguous, and has also been used to mean there is mutual affection between. Both senses are found in Clarissa; or, The history of a young lady (1748), an epistolary novel by the English author and printer Samuel Richardson (1689-1761): – ‘positive’ sense: “Why, […]
Read MoreThe phrase tit for tat means an equivalent given in return or retaliation. The expression seems to be a variation of the obsolete and more comprehensible tip for tap, in which both tip and tap meant a light but distinct blow, stroke, hit. The phrase therefore meant blow for blow. The words tip and tap first appeared combined in Fortunes Stabilnes, by Charles d’Orléans (1394-1465). Context: the letter patent […]
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The term human bean is a humorous alteration or mispronunciation of human being, frequently used as part of an extended pun relating to beans. It is first recorded in Punch, or The London Charivari (1842): This little wretch is exciting the most intense interest, (Faugh!) and we have bribed the authorities in all directions to obtain information regarding him. It […]
Read MoreThe noun myrmidon denotes a follower or subordinate of a powerful person, typically one who is unscrupulous or carries out orders unquestioningly. This word first appeared in the plural forms Mirmydanes and Murmindones in The Laud Troy book, a poem about the siege of Troy composed around 1400. It is from the classical Latin plural […]
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“HUNS KILL WOMEN AND CHILDREN!” “TELL THAT TO THE MARINES!” First-World-War US recruiting poster by James Montgomery Flagg image: Disappearing Idioms This poster, which attracted a great deal of attention, portrays an angry-looking young man in the act of pulling off his coat as though he were anxious to get into a fight. The […]
Read MoreThe French phrase cherchez la femme, search for the woman, is used to indicate that the key to a problem or mystery is a woman, and that she need only be found for the matter to be solved. It first appeared as a catchphrase used by M. Jackal, a police detective, in Les Mohicans de Paris, […]
Read MoreThe phrase far from the madding crowd is used in reference to a private or secluded place. It is an allusion to An Elegy wrote in a Country Church Yard (published in 1751), by the English poet Thomas Gray (1716-71). When he composed this poem, Thomas Gray was living near St Giles’ parish church at Stoke Poges in Buckinghamshire. Meditating […]
Read MoreThe expression knight in shining armour denotes a person regarded as a medieval knight in respect of his chivalrous spirit, especially towards women. In A Concise Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1993), B. A. Phythian explained: Despite its medieval feel, this is a twentieth-century phrase, first recorded in print in Victor Canning’s Whip Hand (1965). […]
Read MoreThe compound apple-pie order means perfect order or neatness. Its first known user was a British Royal Navy officer, Admiral Sir Thomas Pasley (1734-1808), in his journal in 1780: Exercised Great Guns and small Arms as I constantly do every Tuesday and Friday, and fired Volleys; Wash and Fumigate, Wednesdays and Saturdays, Air Spare Sails […]
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