‘lay on, Macduff’ | ‘lead on, Macduff’
from Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’—1814 ‘lay on, Macduff’: go ahead (and give it your best try)—1855 misquotation ‘lead on, Macduff’: let’s get going, start us off
Read MoreCategory: public affairs
meanings and origin of ‘to spend a penny’
UK, 1945—with allusion to the former price of admission to public lavatories: to use a public convenience—by extension: to urinate
Read Morethe humorous phrase ‘late for one’s own funeral’
UK and USA, 1881—addressed or applied to one guilty of chronic and irritating unpunctuality—occasionally used literally
Read Moremeaning and early occurrences of ‘kiss my arse’
very rude way of expressing profound contempt—first recorded in The Killing of Abel, one of the 15th-century mystery plays known as the Wakefield, or Towneley, plays
Read Moremeaning and origin of ‘to box clever’
UK, 1935—to conduct oneself adroitly (‘clever’: adverb meaning ‘skilfully’)—originated in boxing
Read More‘damaged goods’ and venereal disease
1911—‘Damaged Goods’, translation of ‘Les Avariés’, by French dramatist Eugène Brieux, about the dangers of ignorance concerning sexually transmitted diseases
Read More‘booze cruise’ #1: a Scottish acceptation
1950—Sunday trip by car or bus, making use of the bona fide clause in licensing laws, by which non-residents got alcohol—coined by Scottish novelist George Blake
Read More‘a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage’
USA—from Republican slogan during the 1928 presidential campaign—‘a chicken in every pot’: from a declaration attributed to King Henri IV of France (1553-1610)
Read Morea Briticism: ‘lollipop’ in reference to school crossing
1957—circular sign on a pole held up to stop traffic so that children may cross the road near a school—person who stops traffic by holding up such a sign
Read Moremeanings and origin of ‘Aunt Emma’
croquet: unenterprising or defensive player or play—from the name of the fictitious author of a chapter on such tactics in Lillie’s ‘Croquet up to Date’ (1900)
Read More
word histories 