“ad fontes!”
The phrase ‘boys in the backroom’, or ‘backroom boys’, appeared in the 1920s as a U.S. political term denoting persons exercising a surreptitious influence. The Oxford English Dictionary is therefore mistaken in saying that it originally denoted, in 1941, persons engaged in research.
Read MoreBing Crosby popularised ‘pennies from heaven’ in the 1936 film and song of the same name, but the phrase already existed; and Abraham Burstein, rabbi and author, had used ‘pennies falling from heaven’ in The Ghetto Messenger in 1928.
Read MoreFrom Japanese ‘taikun’, ‘tycoon’ was originally the title by which the shogun of Japan was described to foreigners. The current sense originated in the Japanese Embassy to the United States in 1860, not from the use of ‘tycoon’ as a nickname of Abraham Lincoln.
Read MoreOf American-English origin, ‘bag lady’, or ‘shopping-bag lady’, denotes a homeless woman, often elderly, who carries her possessions in shopping bags. The earliest instance that I have found is from The Pocono Record (Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania) of 19th June 1971.
Read MoreDuring the Cold War, especially in the context of a possible nuclear war, ‘better red than dead’ was used to warn against uncompromising opposition to communism, while ‘better dead than red’ was used to express unconditional opposition to communism.
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‘Reds under the bed’ and variants denoted an exaggerated or obsessive fear of the presence and harmful influence of communist sympathisers in a particular society, institution, etc. The earliest instance that I have found is from the Chicago Tribune of 28th September 1924.
Read MoreU.S., 1903—originally used in the sense of ‘impractical scheme based on empty talk’, the element ‘blue sky’ meaning ‘unrealistic project’, and ‘hot air’ meaning ‘insubstantial claims’
Read MoreOf American-English origin, ‘gravy train’ is first recorded in 1899 with reference to sporting achievement, not to financial gain; it originated in the use of ‘gravy’ in the figurative sense of ‘advantage’, ‘benefit’, first recorded in 1845.
Read MoreOften used in phrases such as ‘to jump on the bandwagon’, meaning to join the popular or apparently winning side, ‘bandwagon’ denotes a popular party, faction or cause that attracts growing support; its primary meaning is a wagon used for carrying the band in a parade.
Read MoreThe colloquial phrase ‘long time no see’, which first appeared in the USA in the 1890s, is used as a greeting meaning ‘it is a long time since we last saw each other’. It originated in Chinese Pidgin English, after Chinese ‘hǎojiǔ bú jiàn’, or ‘hǎojĭu méi jiàn’.
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