the Communist origin of ‘to vote with one’s feet’
UK, 1934—image said to have been first used by Lenin about the Russian soldiers who were abandoning the war during the Russian Revolution of 1917
Read MoreCategory: United Kingdom & Ireland
the curious origin of ‘the mind boggles’
primary meaning of ‘boggle’ was ‘to start with fright’, originally with reference to horses—probably related to the nouns ‘bogle’ and ‘bogey’, denoting an evil spirit such as horses are reputed to see
Read Moremeaning, origin & history of ‘bob’s your uncle’
meaning: everything is or will turn out all right—Scotland, 1891—‘bob’ probably related to the adjectives ‘bob’ and ‘bobbish’, meaning ‘well, in good health and spirits’
Read More‘Uncle Tom Cobley and all’: meaning and origin
meaning: everybody imaginable—UK, 1898 in extended form, 1899 in current form—alludes to the names listed in the Devon ballad ‘Widdecombe Fair’
Read More‘to have straws in one’s hair’: meaning and origin
to be insane—late 19th century—originated in the fact that in 19th-century productions of Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’, Ophelia appeared with straws in her hair in her ‘mad scene’
Read Moremeaning and origin of ‘to be unable to run a whelk stall’
‘to be unable to run a whelk stall’ and variants: to be incapable of managing the simplest task or enterprise—coined by John Elliot Burns (1858-1943), English trade unionist and politician, in the 1894 New Year’s address to his constituents of Battersea
Read Morethe British phrase ‘to talk the hind leg off a donkey’
1808, as ‘to talk a horse’s hind leg off’—‘[animal’s] hind leg off’ is probably a hyperbolic extension of ‘to talk’, emphasising the speaker’s persistence or eloquence
Read Morethe British phrase ‘to throw a spanner in(to) the works’
British, 1925—‘to throw a spanner in(to) the works’: to cause disruption, to interfere with the smooth running of something—synonym (American English): ‘to throw a monkey wrench into’
Read MoreHow ‘lion’ came to denote a celebrity.
‘lion’: a person of note or celebrity who is much sought after—from ‘lions’: things of note, celebrity, or curiosity in a town, etc.—from the practice of taking visitors to see the lions which used to be kept in the Tower of London
Read More‘to go to hell – or to heaven – in a handbasket’
‘hell in a handbasket’ (1841), ‘heaven in a handbasket’ (1834) in Irish contexts—‘handbasket’ chosen for alliteration with ‘hell’—‘to go to hell in a handbasket’ meant ‘to go to hell’—‘to go to heaven in a handbasket’ meant ‘to go to heaven’ or ‘to go to hell’
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word histories 