“ad fontes!”
USA, 1919—a person who espouses socialist ideals while enjoying a wealthy lifestyle—‘limousine’: a luxury motor car with a compartment for the passengers and a separate compartment for the driver
Read MoreUSA, 1954—used of a theory that a political event or development in one country, etc., will lead to its occurrence in others—the image is of a falling domino causing an entire row of upended dominoes to fall
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USA, 1898—a view as seen from below or from a humble position—refers to a view taken as from the standpoint of a worm, i.e. from ground-level—coined after ‘bird’s-eye view’ (1782), denoting a view of a landscape from above, such as is presented to the eye of a bird
Read More‘to be destined or appropriate for a particular person’—originated during the First World War as ‘to have a person’s name and number on it’, and meant, of a bullet, etc., ‘to be destined to hit a particular person’
Read MoreCanada and UK, 1978—to publicly disclose perceived wrongdoing or failure on the part of a person or institution; to expose private behaviour to public censure—earlier longer phrases include ‘blame’
Read MoreUSA, 1838—the place or area where someone lives—originally: a narrow stretch of wood; by extension: a settlement in wooded or remote country—formerly also ‘neck of timber’
Read MoreUSA, 1903—the socially inferior part of a town—alludes to the division of a town into areas separated by railway tracks
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USA, 1928—Based on the contrast between the adjectives ‘little’ and ‘big’, this humorous phrase means: to applaud a woman for an achievement.
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UK, 1993—USA, 1987—the words ‘—— from hell’ are suffixed to nouns often referring to everyday life, such as ‘holidays’ and ‘neighbour(s)’, to make phrases denoting an exceptionally unpleasant or bad example or instance of ‘——’
Read MoreUSA, 1906—a man who fixes something, especially a man who, often illicitly, arranges matters or sets up deals—cf. ‘fixer’: one who, often illicitly, arranges or adjusts matters
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word histories 