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word histories

how words and phrases came into existence

Category: media

the phrase ‘(still) going strong, like Johnnie Walker’

10th December 2019.Reading time 9 minutes.

UK, 1910—extended form of ‘going strong’ (continuing to be healthy, vigorous or successful)—from the advertising slogan for Scotch whisky Johnnie Walker

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notes on the phrase ‘a licence to print money’

2nd December 2019.Reading time 13 minutes.

North America, 1943: used of owners of professional baseball teams—Britain, 1958: used of the franchises granted for running commercial television stations

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meaning and origin of the phrase ‘nudge, nudge’

25th November 2019.Reading time 10 minutes.

draws attention to a sexual innuendo—generally refers to an October 1969 sketch from the British comedy series Monty Python’s Flying Circus—but in use earlier

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meaning and origin of ‘back to square one’

23rd November 2019.Reading time 10 minutes.

UK, 1952—back to where one started, with no progress having been made—refers to the game of snakes and ladders

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the British and Irish phrase ‘No-Mates’ (friendless)

26th October 2019.Reading time 17 minutes.

UK, 1993—a person, usually a man, regarded as friendless—often used as a humorous surname following a generic first name such as ‘Billy’

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the origin and various meanings of ‘buy me and stop one’

24th October 2019.Reading time 9 minutes.

UK, 1970s: frequently scrawled on contraceptive-vending devices in public conveniences—reversal of ‘stop me and buy one’, Wall’s Ice Cream advertising slogan

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meaning and origin of the phrase ‘stop me and buy one’

23rd October 2019.Reading time 11 minutes.

UK, 1920s—refers to a person going from one place to another with something to sell—from the slogan on the box-tricycles selling Wall’s Ice Cream

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meaning and history of ‘to write to The Times about it’

21st October 2019.Reading time 10 minutes.

UK, 1851—is or jokingly denotes a threat made by a member of the public to write to the London newspaper The Times to express outrage about a particular issue

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‘gizza job’: a phrase of the mass-unemployment age

14th October 2019.Reading time 9 minutes.

‘give us a job’—UK, 1983—used by Yosser Hughes, a character in Boys from the Blackstuff (1982), a BBC TV drama series on the desperation bred by unemployment

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meaning and origin of the phrase ‘to light the (blue) touchpaper’

9th October 2019.Reading time 20 minutes.

UK, mid-1950s—to set a course of exciting or dramatic events in motion—refers to firework instructions such as ‘light the blue touchpaper and retire immediately’

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