‘to walk like an Egyptian’: meaning and origin
to walk with arms extended, elbows and wrists bent at right angles, one arm up, one down—1962 in To Kill a Mockingbird—refers to the representation of the human body by the ancient Egyptians
Read MoreCategory: music
‘keytar’: meaning and origin
a synthesizer designed to be held in the manner of a guitar, with one hand playing a keyboard while the other operates controls on an extended handle—USA, 1979—from ‘key-’ in ‘keyboard’ and ‘-tar’ in ‘guitar’
Read More‘to (play) hide the sausage’: meaning and origin
to have sexual intercourse—UK, Ireland and Australia, second half of the 20th century—here, the noun ‘sausage’ denotes the penis
Read More‘to pull out all the stops’: meaning and origin
to do everything possible to achieve a result or effect—UK, 1865 (as ‘to pull out a few more stops’)—alludes to pulling out all the stops of an organ in order to produce a full and thrilling sound
Read More‘nom de disc’: meaning and origin
an assumed name under which a person records a disc—UK, 1931—coined on the pattern of phrases such as ‘nom de théâtre’ and ‘nom de plume’
Read Morea British phrase: ‘to go like a bomb’
from the image of a speeding explosive projectile—primary meaning (of a motorcar, an aircraft, a motorcycle, an animal, a person): to move very fast—later (also ‘to go down like a bomb’ and ‘to go down a bomb’): to be very successful or popular
Read More‘Hooray Henry’: meaning and origin
a lively but ineffectual young upper-class man—UK, 1959—apparently coined in the 1950s by the British jazz manager James Godbolt after ‘Hoorah Henry’, coined in 1936 by the U.S. author Alfred Damon Runyon
Read More‘to bang like a dunny door’: meaning and early occurrences
Australia—also ‘to bang like a shithouse door’—used of an exceptional sexual partner—plays on two meanings of the verb ‘bang’: ‘to make a loud noise’ and ‘to have sexual intercourse’
Read More‘Madchester’: meaning and origin
UK, 1989—refers to Manchester, in north-western England, as a centre of popular music and club subculture in Britain in the late 1980s and early 1990s—blend of ‘mad’ and ‘Manchester’
Read More‘earworm’: meanings and origin
USA, 1982—a catchy song or melody that keeps repeating in one’s mind, especially to the point of irritation—loan translation from German ‘Ohrwurm’—original meaning (1598): an earwig
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