the phrase ‘(still) going strong, like Johnnie Walker’
UK, 1910—extended form of ‘going strong’ (continuing to be healthy, vigorous or successful)—from the advertising slogan for Scotch whisky Johnnie Walker
Read Morehow words and phrases came into existence
UK, 1910—extended form of ‘going strong’ (continuing to be healthy, vigorous or successful)—from the advertising slogan for Scotch whisky Johnnie Walker
Read MoreNorth America, 1943: used of owners of professional baseball teams—Britain, 1958: used of the franchises granted for running commercial television stations
Read Moredraws 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
Read MoreUK, 1952—back to where one started, with no progress having been made—refers to the game of snakes and ladders
Read MoreUK, 1993—a person, usually a man, regarded as friendless—often used as a humorous surname following a generic first name such as ‘Billy’
Read MoreUK, 1970s: frequently scrawled on contraceptive-vending devices in public conveniences—reversal of ‘stop me and buy one’, Wall’s Ice Cream advertising slogan
Read MoreUK, 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
Read MoreUK, 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
Read More‘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
Read MoreUK, 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’
Read More