“ad fontes!”
USA—‘Mr Nice Guy’ (1952, first used of Perry Como): a pleasant, selfless, thoughtful person—‘no more Mr Nice Guy’ (1960): used to express that one has decided to stop being considerate of others and instead act exclusively in one’s own self-interest
Read MoreUK, 1864: a naive person who can be manipulated to advance a political agenda—USA, 1948 (1946 as ‘useful innocent’): with reference to a communist strategy designed to gain political power
Read MoreUSA, 1943—nonsensical or absurd talk or ideas concerning global issues—blend of ‘global’ and ‘baloney’—coined by Clare Boothe Luce in her maiden speech to the House of Representatives
Read MoreUSA, 1839—the whole group or set of people, animals or things—origin unknown—perhaps from the Dutch expression ‘de hele kit en boedel’, meaning ‘the entire house and everything in it’
Read MoreUSA, 1814—the whole group or set of people, animals or things—corresponds to modern Dutch ‘de hele boel’ (earlier ‘de hele boedel’)—‘boodle’: from Dutch ‘boedel’, estate, property, a large quantity
Read MoreUK, 1854—to belong to, or to sympathise with, two opposite groups, factions, etc.—probably a loan translation from French ‘avoir un pied dans les deux camps’ (1843)
Read MoreUSA, 1853—in a panic-stricken and unthinking manner—alludes to the phenomenon whereby a chicken can move about for a short time after decapitation, due to reflex activity of the nervous system
Read More
USA, 1950—a midday meal, with several martinis taken as aperitifs, enjoyed by businessmen, and/or politicians, and/or federal-government employees—especially in ‘two-martini lunch’ and ‘three-martini lunch’
Read MoreUK, 1710—in a situation in which any action one takes will have adverse consequences—‘cleft’, past participle of the verb ‘cleave’, means ‘split in two to a certain depth’—the image is of one being squeezed between the stick’s prongs
Read More1885—a person who smokes continually, typically by lighting a cigarette from the stub of the last one smoked—loan translation from German ‘Kettenraucher’—originally referred to Otto von Bismarck
Read More
word histories 