“ad fontes!”
UK, 1923—the north-east corner of Hyde Park, London, near Marble Arch, where public speaking and debate are traditionally permitted with minimal restriction—by extension: any location where public speaking and debate are permitted or encouraged
Read Morewealth gained in one generation of a family will be lost by the third generation—USA, 1874—refers to a hard-working man wearing a shirt with nothing over it
Read Morewealth gained in one generation of a family will be lost by the third generation—UK, 1842, as “there is but one generation in Lancashire between clog and clog”—refers to clogs being typically worn by factory workers
Read More1625—an imminent danger—alludes to Damocles, a courtier of ancient Syracuse, who was given a lesson in the perils to a ruler’s life when forced to sit under a naked sword hanging by a single hair
Read Moremania for holding public office—USA, 1829—a borrowing from Spanish ‘empleomanía’, from ‘empleo’ (i.e., ‘employment’) and the suffix ‘‑manía’ (i.e., ‘-mania’)
Read More1988, Australia & USA—apathy, indifference or mental exhaustion arising from exposure to too much information—especially stress induced by the attempt to assimilate excessive amounts of information from the media, the Internet or at work
Read MoreUSA, 1969—the action or process of becoming or being made plain, ordinary, uninteresting or insipid—from the adjective ‘bland’ and the suffix ‘‑ification’, forming nouns of action
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UK, derogatory—a male van driver, often of a white van, whose driving is selfish and aggressive—1997, in a report issued by the Freight Transport Association
Read MoreUK, 1867—a disastrous or particularly unpleasant year—Latin, literally ‘a horrible year’—coined after Latin ‘annus mirabilis’, literally ‘an extraordinary year’
Read Moregrim and ironical humour—UK, 1860, in reference to the practice of public executions—UK, 1870, as a loan translation from German ‘Galgenhumor’, in the context of the Franco-Prussian War
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word histories 