‘booze cruise’ #1: a Scottish acceptation
1950—Sunday trip by car or bus, making use of the bona fide clause in licensing laws, by which non-residents got alcohol—coined by Scottish novelist George Blake
Read More‘a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage’
USA—from Republican slogan during the 1928 presidential campaign—‘a chicken in every pot’: from a declaration attributed to King Henri IV of France (1553-1610)
Read Morea Briticism: ‘lollipop’ in reference to school crossing
1957—circular sign on a pole held up to stop traffic so that children may cross the road near a school—person who stops traffic by holding up such a sign
Read Moreorigin of ‘old soldiers never die (they simply fade away)’
UK, 1913—from a British Army song (1908) parodying a hymn titled ‘Kind Words Can Never Die’ (USA, 1859)
Read Moremeanings and origin of ‘Aunt Emma’
croquet: unenterprising or defensive player or play—from the name of the fictitious author of a chapter on such tactics in Lillie’s ‘Croquet up to Date’ (1900)
Read Morethe U.S. phrase ‘don’t spit: remember the Johnstown flood’
1908—jocular cautionary advice in theatres, saloons, hotels, etc.—refers to the flooding of the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in 1889
Read More‘it’s baloney, no matter how thin you slice it’
USA, 1926—meaning: it’s utter nonsense, no matter how hard you try to prove the opposite—from ‘bologna’: a large smoked sausage made of seasoned mixed meats
Read Morenotes on the phrase ‘don’t hurry, Hopkins!’
addressed to slow persons—1858—said to be from a promissory note in which a Kentuckian named Hopkins wrote it was agreed he was not to be hurried into paying
Read Morenotes on the phrase ‘a penny bun costs twopence’
1911—expenses rise as soon as one marries or begins cohabiting, or even carries on a romantic relationship—antonym of ‘two can live as cheaply as one’
Read Moreoccurrences of ‘the full monty’ from 1989 to 1994
used to mean ‘everything which is necessary, appropriate or possible’, sometimes with punning reference to the British comedy group ‘Monty Python’
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word histories 