“ad fontes!”
Britain, 1747: dew of the kind that settles on mountains—Scotland, 1816: whisky or other spirit, especially when home-made or illicit (originally in reference to whisky distilled in the Highlands, i.e., in the mountainous region of Scotland)
Read MoreUSA, 1977—petroleum, and any liquid derived from petroleum used in a vehicle powered by an internal-combustion engine—perhaps from popular association of ‘dinosaur’ with ‘fossil fuel’
Read MoreUK, 1759: first applied to Japan—1794 (during the French Revolution): the disparaging use in reference to Britain was popularised by the French phrase ‘nation boutiquière’
Read MoreUSA, early 1930s—adjectives—‘little-girl-lost’: resembling (that of) a small girl who has lost her way—‘little-boy-lost’: resembling (that of) a small boy who has lost his way
Read MoreBritain, 1782—to evoke or recreate a previous time, state or condition; to make it seem as if no time has passed
Read Moreto disrupt; to shake up; to rouse to action—USA, 1902
Read MoreUK, 1839—jocular variant of ‘penny-a-liner’ (i.e., a journalist who was paid at the rate of a penny a line, a person who produced mediocre journalistic work) with the implication that such journalists fabricated falsehoods
Read MoreUK, early 19th century, derogatory—used attributively of a journalist who was paid at the rate of a penny a line, hence also of low-quality writing
Read Morea tachograph—coined in Manchester (England), in September 1968, by lorry drivers who opposed the proposed introduction of the tachograph into lorries
Read Moreto live in excessively close proximity or interdependence—1762: “the company squeezed themselves into one another’s pockets” in a letter by Horace Walpole
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word histories 