‘to get caught with one’s hand in the cookie jar’: meaning and history
to get caught doing something wrong, unauthorised or illegal—USA, 1933
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‘too close for comfort’: meaning and origin
dangerously or uncomfortably close or near—USA, 1827
Read More‘Kafoops’: meanings and origin
(chiefly humorous): a non-specific or hypothetical person, or a person whose name is unknown, forgotten or withheld—Australia, 1902—apparently an arbitrary formation
Read More‘free shave tomorrow’: meanings and origin
USA, 1871—is used of any incentive or reward that is perpetually promised but never actually delivered—refers to a sign displayed as an advertisement for a barber’s shop
Read More‘free beer tomorrow’: meanings and origin
USA, 1889—is used of any incentive or reward that is perpetually promised but never actually delivered—refers to a sign displayed as an advertisement for a pub
Read More‘to fiddle while Rome burns’: meaning and origin
UK, 1770—as ‘Nero fiddled whilst Rome was burning’, in a swipe at King George III, by John Horne
Read More‘two more and up goes the donkey’: meanings and origin
UK, 1834—an old cry used at fairs, the showman promising his audience that as soon as enough pennies are collected, his donkey will balance itself on the top of a ladder
Read More‘the white man’s burden’: meaning and origin
the alleged duty of the white peoples to bring their civilisation to other peoples regarded as backward—USA, 1865—in early use, often referred to the relations between European Americans and African an Americans
Read More‘the white man’s grave’: meaning and origin
Sierra Leone, a former British colony in West Africa, and, by extension, equatorial West Africa in general—UK, 1833—refers to the high mortality rate among white colonisers of the region
Read More‘Antifa’: meanings and origin
1945—originally referred to anti-fascist committees in Germany at the end of, and immediately after, World War II—from German ‘Antifa’, shortened from ‘Antifaschismus’ (i.e., anti-fascism) and from ‘antifaschistisch’ (i.e., anti-fascist)
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word histories 