meaning and origin of the British phrase ‘to be all mouth and (no) trousers’
1961—to be all talk and no action—originally without the negative determiner ‘no’—refers to verbal and sexual arrogance
Read MoreCategory: USA & Canada
meaning and origin of the American-English phrase ‘(strictly) for the birds’
army slang, early 1940s—euphemistic shortening of ‘shit for the birds’—seems to allude to birds eating droppings from horses and cattle
Read Moremeaning and origin of ‘there’s one, or a sucker, born every minute’
UK, 1806—expresses dismay or glee at the gullibility of people—originally used by those who were exploiting the credulity of others
Read MoreWhy ‘gerrymander’ was originally the name of a monstrous salamander.
the drawing of the ‘Gerry-mander’ and the accompanying text—as published in the Boston Gazette (Boston, Massachusetts) of 26 March 1812
Read Moremeaning and origin of the British-English phrase ‘64,000 question’
1956—a crucial question or issue—from The 64,000 Question, the name of a TV quiz show adapted from U.S. TV programme The $64,000 Question
Read Morean investigation into the origin of the portmanteau word ‘bankster’
USA, 1931—presented as being of French origin, but French earliest known uses, in 1933, are from American English
Read Morea hypothesis as to the origin of the phrase ‘a Chinaman’s chance’
USA, 1893—a negligible likelihood—might refer to the fact that the Chinese had little prospect of obtaining reparations for racial discrimination
Read More‘too many chiefs and not enough Indians’: meaning and origin
USA, 1947, of post-war need for soldiers—origin: when playing cowboys and Indians, a child would rather be the chief than an average Indian
Read More‘curiosity killed the cat’: meaning and origin
1868, but late 16th century as ‘care [= disquiet] killed a cat’—the image is perhaps that disquiet would exhaust the nine lives allotted to a cat
Read Morethe cinematographic origin of the phrase ‘off the cuff’ (spontaneously)
USA, 1928—originally referred to scenario improvising during the silent-film era—the image is of notes written on a shirt-cuff
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