‘elbow grease’ | ‘huile de coude’
The humorous expression ‘elbow grease’ (1639) denotes vigorous physical labour, especially hard rubbing. The corresponding French expression is ‘huile de coude’ (1761), literally ‘elbow oil’.
Read More‘butty’: meanings and origin
Northern England—a filled or open sandwich—originally (1827): a slice of bread spread with butter—composed of ‘butt-’, from the noun ‘butter’, and the suffix ‘-y’, forming diminutive nouns
Read More‘beetle-crusher’: meaning and origin
denotes a foot or a boot, especially a big one—1856, in the caption to a cartoon by John Leech, published in Punch (London, England): “A vulgar and disgusting expression, implying that a foot is big enough, and flat enough, to kill Black-beetles”
Read More‘we’ve got a right one here’: meaning and early occurrences
UK, 1958—The phrase ‘we’ve got a right one here’ is used of an odd person or of an idiot. Typically, the speaker uses this phrase when talking to someone about a third party.
Read More‘vinegar trip’: meanings and origin
Lancashire, England, 1973—a wasted journey; a weird way of behaving; a fit of ill temper—origin unknown—one hypothesis is that when wine boats from the Mediterranean arrived in Liverpool, the wine was occasionally sour and therefore useless
Read More‘Tom Pepper’: meaning and early occurrences
USA, 1812—UK, 1818—the name of a character proverbially said to have been so great a liar that he was expelled from Hell—hence, frequently in ‘a bigger liar than Tom Pepper’, and variants: an outrageous liar
Read More‘(as) thick as two short planks’: meaning and origin
UK, 1954—very stupid—the humorous arbitrary comparison with ‘two short planks’ gives emphasis to the adjective ‘thick’, meaning stupid
Read More‘savoury duck’: meaning and origin
Lancashire, England, 1833—a faggot, a meatball, “a compound of onions, flour, and small pieces of pork” (The Liverpool Echo, 20 August 1880)—probably one of the common dishes humorously named after daintier items of food
Read More‘blind scouse’: meaning and origin
Liverpool, England, 1939—scouse without meat—“from the general early sense of ‘blind’ meaning ‘deficient’” (Liverpool English Dictionary)—‘scouse’, shortened form of ‘lobscouse’: “a dish of hashed meat stewed with potatoes and onions; an Irish stew” (English Dialect Dictionary)
Read More‘couldn’t knock the skin off a rice pudding’: meaning and origin
1910—used of a weakling, or of someone or something that is ineffectual—may have originated in Yorkshire, a county of northern England
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