“ad fontes!”
The noun ‘armchair’ is used as an attributive modifier meaning: 1) based or taking place in the home as opposed to the world or environment outside; hence, chiefly depreciatively: 2) lacking or not involving practical or direct experience of a particular subject or activity.
Read MoreUSA, 1920: ‘wetback’: an illegal immigrant who crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico to the USA—by extension: any illegal immigrant who entered a foreign country by swimming—Mexico and USA, 1994: ‘espaldas secas’, i.e., ‘dry backs’: the U.S. citizens working in Mexico as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement
Read MoreUSA—1966: an artificial grass surface used for sports fields—‘Astro-’: from the first use of Astroturf in the Astrodome stadium at Houston, Texas—1972, with humorous allusion to ‘grassroots’: an artificial version of a grassroots campaign
Read MoreUSA, 1990—a method of caring for a premature newborn in which a parent holds the infant on their chest in skin-to-skin contact—from the fact that kangaroos give birth to still-developing foetuses, then nurse them in their pouches
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On the pattern of phrases such as ‘nom de guerre’, ‘nom de théâtre’ and ‘nom de plume’, ‘nom de —’ is used, often humorously, to form phrases denoting a pseudonym, an alternative name.
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USA, 1971—to think creatively or in an unconventional manner—originated in a puzzle in which the aim is to connect nine dots arranged in the form of a square with four consecutive straight lines: the puzzle can be solved only by extending three of the lines outside the box implied by the arrangement of the dots
Read More‘cross I win (and) pile you lose’ (1673)—‘heads I win (and) tails you lose’ (1728)—meaning: ‘I win whatever happens’—with reference to the practice of tossing a coin to determine a winner or to make a decision
Read MoreUK, 1711—means that anyone can be right occasionally, if only by chance—often used specifically to suggest that one holding a fixed belief regardless of changing circumstances will occasionally, if rarely, be correct
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USA, 1941—the person with the least amount of experience, authority and/or influence in a group or organisation—apparently coined, as ‘low man on any totem pole’, by comedian Fred Allen in a portrait of his friend, humorist H. Allen Smith
Read MoreUSA, 1906: a person who advocates equality for all people at a high level of prosperity (i.e., who believes in champagne for everybody)—UK, 1956: a person who espouses socialist ideals while enjoying a wealthy lifestyle
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word histories 