‘after the Lord Mayor’s Show (comes the dung-cart)’
UK, 1851—a disappointing end to an otherwise exciting display—refers to the cleaning-up, especially of horse-dung, necessary after the Lord Mayor’s Show, in London
Read MoreCategory: public affairs
the birth of ‘little old ladies in tennis shoes’
USA, 1961—coined by Howard Jewel, Assistant Attorney General, Sacramento, California, as a description of female members of the John Birch Society
Read More‘look (mum, or ma), no hands!’: meaning and origin
used of something done cleverly—British and American—originated as the proud exclamation of a child riding a bicycle with no hands on the handlebars
Read More‘that job’s jobbed’: meaning and early occurrences
used to express satisfaction when a task that has called for more than usual enterprise and determination has been accomplished—UK, 1833
Read Morenotes on ‘see you later, agitator’
USA, 1956—jocular variant of equally jocular ‘see you later, alligator’ (1952)—recoined on separate occasions by various persons, independently from one another
Read Morethe anti-nuclear phrase ‘one flash and you’re ash’
Australia, 1953—slogan used by opponents of nuclear weapons—also used in New Zealand
Read More‘you can’t tell the mind of a squid’: meaning and origin
Newfoundland, 1958—used of someone or something that is unreliable—refers to the fact that a squid moves backwards and forwards
Read More‘Flypaper Act’ | ‘to be under, or on, the flypaper’
UK slang, 1906—‘Flypaper Act’: the Prevention of Crimes Act—‘to be under, or on, the flypaper’: to be subject to the Prevention of Crimes Act
Read Moremeaning of ‘hit me now with the child in my arms’
Irish-English phrase—first recorded in 1892—used to express pretended fear of, and/or provocation to, a physical attack
Read Moremeanings of ‘to give the cat another goldfish’
USA, 1919—‘spare no expense’—also ‘go all out for it’, ‘hand victory on a platter’, ‘allow yourself more of what you want’ (South Africa)
Read More
word histories 