“ad fontes!”
1755: a musical performance in which each participant plays or sings a different tune—1759: a confused or discordant medley—one of several phrases in which the adjective ‘Dutch’ is used derogatorily or derisively
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UK, 1916—a scrawny girl or woman—may have originated in the title of a successful song (and in the name of an equally popular character) created in 1911 by the comedienne Lily Long
Read MoreU.S. slang, 20th century—in reference to a person’s anus, ‘to stick (something) where the sun don’t shine’ expresses contemptuous rejection
Read Morethe quality or fact of being from New Zealand; characteristics regarded as typical of New Zealand or New Zealanders—coined in 1967 by the U.S. Professor of Psychology Eugene Leonard Hartley
Read MoreUSA, 1931—indicates that something has been formulated or devised hurriedly, roughly or carelessly, as though sketched or scribbled on the back of an envelope
Read Moreyou cannot improve something which is inherently or unalterably unpleasant, or of poor quality—USA, 1977—originally in reference to rock music
Read More‘to have a fancy for’—UK, 1900—loan translation from French ‘avoir un béguin pour’—French ‘béguin’ is from ‘s’embéguiner de’, meaning ‘to put on a bonnet’, hence ‘to put a sudden capricious idea into one’s head’
Read More1962: a type of popular music that is rapidly discarded—also, 1967: Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, regarded as a lachrymose piece of music by Igor Stravinsky—‘Kleenex’: a proprietary name for a soft, disposable paper tissue
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France—1883: Viennese-style baked goods—1887: a bakery that makes and sells this type of baked goods—those baked goods were introduced into France in 1839 by the Austrian entrepreneur August Zang
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has been colloquially used to express a great variety of notions, in particular ugliness and madness, but also unpleasantness, unpredictableness, agitation, disturbance, etc.
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word histories 