history of the acronym ‘ACAB’
1970—British and Irish English—acronym from the phrase ‘all coppers are bastards’—customarily written (tattooed in particular) rather than spoken
Read More1970—British and Irish English—acronym from the phrase ‘all coppers are bastards’—customarily written (tattooed in particular) rather than spoken
Read Morethe only person or thing to be considered in a particular situation—USA, 1895—popularised by 1896 song ‘You’re Not the Only Pebble on the Beach’
Read MoreUSA, 1934—addressed, often with ironic pity, to someone who has had an arduous day—from very popular 1934 song, ‘Little Man, You’ve Had a Busy Day’
Read MoreUSA, 1956—jocular variant of equally jocular ‘see you later, alligator’ (1952)—recoined on separate occasions by various persons, independently from one another
Read MoreUK, 1913—from a British Army song (1908) parodying a hymn titled ‘Kind Words Can Never Die’ (USA, 1859)
Read Moreused to mean ‘everything which is necessary, appropriate or possible’, sometimes with punning reference to the British comedy group ‘Monty Python’
Read MoreUK, 1899—to comply with someone else’s option—title of a song from musical comedy ‘A Runaway Girl’ (1898) with reference to travel agency Thomas Cook and Son
Read MoreU.S. Army slang 1936—a red flag waved to indicate a complete miss on a target range—probably from bawdy song ‘Those Little Red Drawers That My Maggie Wore’
Read More‘upstairs to bed’—UK, 1923: title of a song by Nixon Grey—‘Bedfordshire’ jocular extension of ‘bed’ (1665)—‘the wooden hill’ metaphor for ‘the stairs’ (1856)
Read MoreUSA, 1984—used to indicate that something is blatantly obvious—humorously from ‘Is the Pope Catholic?’ and ‘Does a bear shit in the woods?’
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