‘banana republic’: meaning and origin
a Latin-American country that is politically unstable because its economy, controlled by U.S. capital, wholly depends on the export of bananas
Read MoreCategory: USA & Canada
meaning and origin of ‘as dead as the dodo’
UK, 1852—of a person or thing: irretrievably defunct or out of date—with reference to the extinct bird of Mauritius
Read Moremeaning and origin of ‘bright-eyed and bushy-tailed’
USA, 1940—alert and lively—originated in the conventional image of a healthy, spirited squirrel or other animal
Read Morethe tautological phrase ‘in this day and age’
‘in this day and age’ (‘at the present time’)—USA, 1832—tautology, that is to say, ‘day’ and ‘age’ are synonymous, ‘day’ meaning ‘a period of time’
Read More‘don’t give up the day job’ (your performance fails to impress)
USA, 1951—used as a humorous way of recommending someone not to pursue something at which they are unlikely to be successful
Read Morethe curious French equivalents of ‘window shopping’
How Adolf Hitler popularised ‘heads will roll’ in 1930.
based on the notion of execution by beheading—popularised by a literal threat of executions made on 25th September 1930 by Adolf Hitler
Read Moreone more discussion about ‘Indian summer’
the problems with the “novel origin story for ‘Indian Summer’” put forward by Matthew R. Halley in Notes and Queries (September 2017)
Read Morethe Bloody Mary before the name existed
Unnamed cocktails consisting of vodka and tomato juice became fashionable in the 1930s before the name ‘Bloody Mary’ was coined in November 1939.
Read Moreorigin of ‘hatchet man’: a hired Chinese assassin
USA—‘hatchet man’ (1874): a hired Chinese assassin using a hatchet or cleaver—‘hatchet work’ (1895): a murder carried out by a hatchet man
Read More
word histories 