meaning and origin of the phrase ‘this is where we came in’
when there were consecutive screenings of a film, spectators could start watching at any point and stay on to watch the first part on the next showing
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origin of ‘sad sack’ (an inept blundering person)
USA, 1942, Army slang—popularised in the Army weekly ‘Yank’ by ‘The Sad Sack’, a cartoon strip by George Baker, depicting the misfortunes of an inept private
Read Moresome reflections on ‘to Wyatt’
UK 2006—to play recherché music on a jukebox with the intent of irritating pub customers—attributed to Carl Neville in reference to Robert Wyatt’s ‘Dondestan’
Read More‘cheese-eating/tea-drinking surrender monkeys’
‘cheese-eating surrender monkeys’: the French people (USA, 1995) from The Simpsons—‘tea-drinking surrender monkeys’: the British people (Ireland, 2004)
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘to go commando’
USA, 1974—to wear no underpants—originated in university slang—perhaps because commandos wear no underpants in order to prevent crotch rot and rashes
Read Morehistory of the terms ‘man Friday’ and ‘girl Friday’
USA—‘man Friday’ 1802: alludes to the name of Robinson Crusoe’s servant in Daniel Defoe’s novel—‘girl Friday’ 1929: coined on the pattern of ‘man Friday’
Read Moremeaning and origin of the term ‘Streisand effect’
USA, 2005—coined by Mike Masnick on Techdirt.com—refers to Barbra Streisand’s counterproductive attempt in 2003 to ban a photo of her house
Read Morea Briticism: ‘Gavin and Stacey’ used as an attributive modifier
2019—used to mean ‘Anglo-Welsh’—from ‘Gavin & Stacey’, a sitcom about the relationship between an Englishman and a Welsh woman
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘all-singing, all-dancing’
UK, 1959—having every desirable feature possible—from ‘all-singing, all-dancing’ as used in the billing given to film or stage musical productions
Read Morethe acronym ‘Wags’ and its derivative ‘Gwags’
‘WAGs’ (1987): the wives and girlfriends of the players of the Scottish football team Dundee United F.C.—‘Gwags’ (2006): golfers’ wives and girlfriends
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word histories 