A French kiss was originally a kiss on both cheeks.
‘French kiss’—19th century: a kiss on both cheeks—early 20th century (USA): a kiss with contact between tongues
Read MoreCategory: United Kingdom & Ireland
meaning and early instances of ‘small potatoes’
USA, early 19th century—‘small potatoes’: person or thing considered petty, unimportant, insignificant or worthless
Read Morethe various meanings and origins of ‘Franglais’
Since WWI, ‘Franglais’ has been coined to denote: French spoken by an Anglophone, English spoken by a Francophone and French speech using English words.
Read Moreorigin of ‘Froggy’ (French)
mid-19th cent.—perhaps from a specific application of the general term of abuse ‘Frog’, aided by the shared initial consonant cluster in ‘French’ and ‘frog’
Read Moremeanings and origin of ‘small beer’
‘small beer’: ‘person(s) or matter(s) of little or no importance’ (first use by Shakespeare), from the literal sense ‘beer of a weak, poor or inferior quality’
Read Moreorigin of ‘to have someone’s guts for garters’
The phrase ‘to have someone’s guts for garters’, used as a hyperbolical threat, is first recorded in the late 16th century.
Read Moreorigin of ‘an Englishman’s home is his castle’
19th century—edulcoration of the legal notion of the fortress-like security of the English home, dating from the early 16th century
Read Morethe authentic origin of ‘to bite the bullet’
late 19th century—from the practice consisting, for a soldier, in biting on a bullet when being flogged
Read MoreThe verb ‘unfriend’ was coined in the 17th century.
The verb unfriend was coined by the Church of England clergyman Thomas Fuller (1608-61) in The Appeal of Injured Innocence (1659).
Read Moreorigin of ‘flexible friend’ (credit card)
early 1980s—originated in “Access. Your flexible friend”, advertising slogan for the Access credit card, which played on the notion that repayment was flexible
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