‘curiosity killed the cat’: meaning and origin
1868, but late 16th century as ‘care [= disquiet] killed a cat’—the image is perhaps that disquiet would exhaust the nine lives allotted to a cat
Read MoreCategory: United Kingdom & Ireland
origin of the phrase ‘been there, done that (and got the T-shirt)’
Australia, 1980—seems to have originated in a 1979 tribute song to the Australian cricketer and cricket commentator Alan McGilvray
Read Morethe story of ‘John Lennon spectacles’
USA, 1967—metal-framed spectacles with small, round lenses—worn and popularised by the English singer, musician and songwriter John Lennon (1940-80)
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘a bad quarter of an hour’
UK, 1755—loan translation from French ‘un mauvais quart d’heure’ (1710), which has also been used in English since 1830
Read Moreorigin of the phrase ‘to act one’s age, and not one’s shoe size’
USA, 1967—‘to act one’s age, and not one’s shoe size’—humorous extension of ‘to act one’s age’—in turn jocularly modified as ‘to act one’s shoe size, and not one’s age’
Read Moremeaning and origin of the British term ‘Aga saga’
UK, 1992 (coined by Terence Blacker)—a novel depicting the lives and concerns of the British rural middle classes—from the association of Aga cookers with those classes
Read More‘to get one’s knickers in a twist’: meaning and origin
(jocular) to become unduly agitated or angry—twisted clothing as a metaphor for mental confusion—UK, 1971, in the comic strip Andy Capp
Read Moremeaning and origin of ‘to give somebody the (screaming) (h)abdabs’
UK, 1942—fanciful word ‘(h)abdabs’: nervous anxiety or irritation—apparently originated in Royal Air Force slang during WWII
Read Moremeanings and origin of ‘flavour of the month/of the week’
UK, 1967—person or thing that enjoys a short period of great popularity—the particular ice-cream flavour promoted during a month/week
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘away with the fairies’
Irish English, 1907—out of touch with reality—ultimately refers to the belief that the fairies spirit away human beings
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word histories 