“ad fontes!”
UK, 1808—to make one’s beliefs or intentions plain—from the former practice of nailing an ensign to the mast of a ship, after damage during battle resulted in the ship’s colours no longer being clearly displayed, which otherwise might have been interpreted as a signal of surrender
Read MoreUSA, 1917—a method of treating a drug addict by sudden and complete withdrawal of the drug, instead of by a gradual process—alludes to the goose pimples, resembling the skin of a cold turkey, that a person experiences as a side effect of the treatment
Read MoreUK, 1824—thoroughly or perfectly right—‘trivet’: a metal tripod for a cooking pot or kettle to stand on—the phrase refers to a trivet’s always standing firm on its three feet
Read MoreUK, 1685—a person who is friendly only when it is easy or convenient to be so, whose friendship cannot be relied on in times of difficulty
Read MoreUK, 1860—very much, very intensely—‘billy-o’ occurs only in this phrase—it is apparently composed of ‘Billy’, pet form of the male forename ‘William’, and the suffix ‘-o’, used to form slang and colloquial nouns, adjectives and interjections
Read MoreUSA, 1890—to regain one’s energy by resting after a period of exertion—the image is of restoring an electric charge to a battery
Read MoreUK—‘the Beast from the East’ (2011): polar continental air mass, which brings wintry conditions—‘the Pest from the West’ (2012): mild air from the Atlantic, which brings strong winds and heavy rainfalls
Read MoreUK, 2005—the perceived indiscriminate and excessive use by the authorities of anti-social behaviour orders—apparently coined by Álvaro Gil-Robles, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights—‘Asbo’: acronym from the initial letters of ‘anti-social behaviour order’
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Australia, 1927—very drunk; sated with food—‘goog’, Australian-English slang for an egg, was perhaps formed on the sense of ‘gog’ in ‘goosgog’, denoting a gooseberry
Read MoreUSA, 1857—an exclamation expressing surprise or dismay—the motivation for the choice of the female forename ‘Betsy’ (variant of ‘Betty’, pet form of ‘Elizabeth’) is unknown
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word histories 