“ad fontes!”
used in a situation in which someone is recognised by a person or persons whom he or she does not know or recognise—1722 in Colonel Jack, by Daniel Defoe—1656 with ‘the clown’ instead of ‘Tom Fool’
Read MoreUK, 1748, as ‘to add insult to injuries’—to act in a way that makes matters worse in a bad situation or when somebody has already been hurt or upset
Read Morehighly convincing circumstantial evidence—USA, 1862—ascribed to Henry David Thoreau—refers to the practice of surreptitiously diluting milk with stream-water
Read MoreUK, 1813, as ‘to blot the landscape’, meaning, of an ugly feature, to spoil the appearance of a place—also used figuratively of anything unsightly or unappealing that spoils an otherwise pleasant scene
Read MoreUSA, 1832—a rhetorical question calling attention to a non-sequitur or irrelevant statement or suggestion made by another person—the noun following ‘the price of’ is irrelevant to the context in which it is used
Read MoreIreland, 1891—used in negative contexts to denote rejection, especially in ‘not for all the tea in China’, meaning ‘not in any circumstances’—refers to China as a major producer of tea, and to tea as a commodity of great value
Read More1894—in Australian English, the noun ‘bandicoot’, which designates an insectivorous marsupial native to Australia, has been used in numerous similes denoting deprivation or desolation
Read MoreAustralia, 1953—to flatter someone or to (seek to) ingratiate oneself with someone, to curry favour with someone—cf. 19th-century British phrase ‘to piss down someone’s back’ (to flatter someone)
Read MoreAustralia, 1925—a section of Sussex Street, on the Sydney waterfront, along which, in the 1920s and 1930s, unemployed wharf-labourers trudged, waiting to be handpicked for the few available jobs
Read MoreAustralia, 1957, as ‘a hatful of bronzas’—used in similes expressing notions such as ugliness and silliness
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