‘how long is a piece of string?’: meaning and early occurrences

3rd Mar 2021.Reading time 8 minutes.

USA, 1885—a response to a question that cannot be answered precisely, although a precise answer seems to be expected—various jocular replies have been made up, such as ‘twice the length from the middle to the end

‘chain-smoker’: meaning and origin

2nd Mar 2021.Reading time 5 minutes.

1885—a person who smokes continually, typically by lighting a cigarette from the stub of the last one smoked—loan translation from German ‘Kettenraucher’—originally referred to Otto von Bismarck

‘different strokes for different folks’: meaning and origin

1st Mar 2021.Reading time 9 minutes.

African-American, 1966—different things please or satisfy different people—‘stroke’ denotes a comforting gesture of approval or congratulation, and, by extension, a flattering or friendly remark

‘to rain stair rods’: meaning and early occurrences

24th Feb 2021.Reading time 9 minutes.

UK, 1900—to rain very heavily—‘stair rod’: a rod for securing a carpet in the angle between two steps

‘square eyes’ | ‘square-eyed’

23rd Feb 2021.Reading time 7 minutes.

‘square eyes’ 1955: eyes fancifully imagined as made square by habitual or excessive television viewing; a person characterised as watching too much television—‘square-eyed’ 1953: affected by, or given to, excessive viewing of television

notes on the phrase ‘sing ’em muck’

21st Feb 2021.Reading time 17 minutes.

1928 in Clara Butt: Her Life-Story, by H. W. Ponder—“Sing ’em muck! It’s all they can understand!”: advice given by Australian soprano Nellie Melba to English contralto Clara Butt, who was about to undertake a tour of Australia

‘to be able to talk under water (under wet cement/concrete)’

20th Feb 2021.Reading time 7 minutes.

Australia—to have the gift of the gab—‘to be able to talk under water’ (1951)—‘to be able to talk under wet cement’ (1978)—‘to be able to talk under wet concrete’ (1980)

‘wouldn’t work in an iron lung’: meaning and origin

19th Feb 2021.Reading time 8 minutes.

Australia, 1953—used of an extremely lazy person—refers to the artificial respirator that kept polio patients alive by “breathing” for them

‘Hollywood ending’: meanings and origin

18th Feb 2021.Reading time 10 minutes.

USA, 1927—a conventional film ending, regarded as sentimental or simplistic, and often featuring an improbably positive outcome—by extension: an improbably positive outcome to a real-life situation

‘the politics of the warm inner glow’: meaning and origin

17th Feb 2021.Reading time 7 minutes.

Australia, 1981—the ideology of the Australian Labor Party’s left wing, “for whom the ultimate test of a policy is the feeling of personal virtuousness to be derived from its espousal”—Labor politician James McClelland claimed to have coined this phrase