‘pas ce soir, Josephine’ : meaning and early occurrences
UK, 1935—jocular—is used by a man to defer his sexual duties to a wife or lover; is also applied to any postponement—translation of the earlier phrase ‘not tonight, Josephine’
Read MoreCategory: literature
‘to pee on a stick’: meanings and origin
USA & UK, 1995—to take a pregnancy test of a type involving urinating on a disposable plastic stick which immediately indicates the result—also, more generally: to take any of various other diagnostic tests of this type
Read More‘Rasputin’: meaning and origin
a person exercising an insidious or corrupting influence, especially over a ruler, government, etc.—UK, 1917—refers to Grigori Efimovich Rasputin (circa 1869-1916), mystic and influential favourite at the court of Tsar Nicholas II
Read More‘omniverbivorous’: meaning and origin
having a large or inexhaustible appetite for words—USA, 1858—coined by the U.S. physician and author Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894)
Read More‘clogdogdo’: meaning and origin
a term of abuse or disparagement, especially for a man’s wife or female relative—1616 in Epicœne, or The Silent Woman, by Ben Jonson—perhaps in reference to an encumbrance, like a clog (i.e., a heavy piece of wood) tied to a dog
Read More‘chatmate’: meaning and origin
1599—a person with whom one chats, a partner in informal or friendly conversation—now, more specifically: a person with whom one communicates via online chat or messaging
Read More‘demonagerie’: meaning and origin
a menagerie of demons—UK, 1848—a blend of the nouns ‘demon’ and ‘menagerie’
Read More‘sandcastle’: meanings and origin
UK, 1833: a small castle-like structure made of wet sand, as by children on a beach—UK, 1837: a plan or idea with little substance
Read More‘ships that pass in the night’: meanings and origin
people who meet for a short time, by chance, and then do not see each other again—people who, although living together, are unable to see very much of each other—coined in 1873 by the U.S. poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Read More‘damsel in distress’: meaning and early occurrences
the clichéd literary topos of a young woman who is in trouble and needs a man’s help—1694, in a text by Joseph Addison
Read More
word histories 