‘to judge a book by its cover’: meaning and origin

17th Sep 2021.Reading time 10 minutes.

USA, 1837—to make assumptions about someone or something based on appearance or on superficial characteristics—the metaphor occurs in the preface to ‘Truth in Fiction: Or, Morality in Masquerade. A Collection of Two hundred twenty five Select Fables of Æsop, and other Authors’ (London, 1708), by Edmund Arwaker

‘bread-artist’: meaning and origin

16th Sep 2021.Reading time 17 minutes.

an artist or writer who produces what is considered to be inferior work simply to earn a living—loan translation from German ‘Brotkünstler’—first used in 1827 by Scottish historian and political philosopher Thomas Carlyle in a text about German literature

‘to break a butterfly on a wheel’: meaning and origin

14th Sep 2021.Reading time 13 minutes.

to use unnecessary force in destroying something fragile—alludes to a wheel used as an instrument of torture—first occurs in An Epistle from Mr. Pope, to Dr. Arbuthnot (1734), by the English poet Alexander Pope (1688-1744), who perhaps coined this phrase

‘the whole box and dice’: meaning and origin

9th Sep 2021.Reading time 12 minutes.

Australia, 1828—Ireland, 1832—a group of things or people in its entirety—‘box’ refers to a box from which dice are thrown in gaming or gambling

‘box of ivories’, ‘kissing-trap’ and other slang expressions for the mouth

8th Sep 2021.Reading time 8 minutes.

The following slang expressions have been used to designate the mouth: ‘box of ivories’ (also ‘ivory-box’); ‘box of dominoes’ (also ‘domino-box’); ‘bone-box’; ‘potato-box’; ‘potato-jaw’; ‘potato-trap’; ‘kissing-trap’.

‘girls will be girls’: meaning and early occurrences

6th Sep 2021.Reading time 11 minutes.

1804—used to express resignation regarding an undesirable aspect of the behaviour of a girl or young woman, as being supposedly characteristic of her age or sex

‘boys will be boys’: meaning and early occurrences

5th Sep 2021.Reading time 6 minutes.

1721—used to express resignation regarding an undesirable aspect of the behaviour of a boy or young man, as being supposedly characteristic of his age or sex

‘green thumb’: meaning and origin

3rd Sep 2021.Reading time 13 minutes.

British, 1907—denotes considerable talent or ability to grow plants—in this phrase, the adjective ‘green’ refers to the colour of growing vegetation—1921: ‘green-thumbed’ (adjective)

‘green fingers’: meaning and origin

2nd Sep 2021.Reading time 7 minutes.

British, 1906—denotes considerable talent or ability to grow plants—in this phrase, the adjective ‘green’ refers to the colour of growing vegetation—1914: ‘green-fingered’ (adjective)

‘to be not so green as one is cabbage-looking’

31st Aug 2021.Reading time 10 minutes.

Australia, 1865—to be less of a fool than one appears to be—this phrase plays on two uses of the adjective ‘green’: 1) denoting the colour of growing vegetation, grass, etc. 2) denoting an inexperienced or naive person