‘to kick somebody upstairs’: meaning and origin
to promote somebody to an ostensibly higher position where they will be out of the way and less influential—jocular variant of ‘to kick somebody downstairs’, meaning to eject somebody
Read More‘Dutch feast’: meaning and origin
a social occasion where the host gets drunk at an earlier time than the guests—1682?—one of several expressions in which the adjective ‘Dutch’ is used derogatorily or derisively
Read More‘buddy system’: original meaning and early occurrences
USA, 1920—a system devised by the Red Cross Life Saving Corps for Boy Scout camps, whereby the boys were paired off, each boy in a pair staying with the other throughout a swimming period and taking responsibility for the other’s safety
Read More‘al desko’: meaning and origin
USA, 1981—adverb meaning: at one’s desk—especially used with reference to eating lunch or other meals there—humorous alteration of ‘al fresco’
Read More‘nosism’: meaning and origin
in reference to a group of people: a self-centred attitude (corresponding to ‘egotism’ in an individual)—UK, 1819—from the Latin pronoun of the first person plural ‘nōs’ and the suffix ‘‑ism’ (after ‘egotism’)
Read More‘to put one’s money where one’s mouth is’: meaning and origin
USA, 1913—to produce, bet or pay out money to support one’s statements or opinions; to do something that demonstrates one’s assertion
Read More‘bag stuffer’: meaning and origin
USA, 1950, as ‘shopping-bag stuffer’—an advertising leaflet or similar piece of promotional material handed out to shoppers or placed in shopping bags alongside goods purchased
Read More‘there’s life in the old dog yet’: meaning and origin
an assertion of continuing competence, strength, etc., notwithstanding evidence to the contrary—from the title of a painting by the British artist Edwin Landseer, first exhibited in 1838
Read Morenotes on the phrase ‘life was not meant to be easy’—as used in Australia
1969—associated with Malcolm Fraser, Prime Minister of Australia from 1975 to 1983, who borrowed it from George Bernard Shaw’s Back to Methuselah (1921)
Read More‘guzinter’: meanings and origin
1910—a humorous phonetic transcription of the phrase “goes into”, as originally used at school in arithmetic lessons (as in “4 guzinter 8 two times”)—hence, by extension: a schoolteacher
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