‘my name is Simpson, not Samson’: meaning and origin

25th Mar 2020.Reading time 4 minutes.

UK, 1906—used by a workman asked to lift too heavy an object—‘Simpson’ chosen for its similarity with ‘Samson’, the name of a biblical hero of enormous strength

‘must you stay? can’t you go?’: origin and meanings

24th Mar 2020.Reading time 17 minutes.

UK, 1897—alteration of ‘must you go? can’t you stay?’ in Collections and Recollections, by G. W. E. Russell—originally used in reference to guests’ departure

meanings of ‘more holy than righteous’

23rd Mar 2020.Reading time 10 minutes.

1) a seemingly devout or respectable person who lacks virtue—2) (with a pun on ‘holey’, i.e., full of holes) jocularly applied to holey things such as clothes

‘a handsome husband and a thousand a year’

22nd Mar 2020.Reading time 8 minutes.

UK, 1907—the ideal of an unmarried woman—the phrase was especially used when offering to an unmarried woman the last cake or piece of bread from a plate

the theatrical phrase ‘eternity version’

20th Mar 2020.Reading time 7 minutes.

jocularly denotes a performance of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in its entirety—UK, 1946—all occurrences from articles by theatre critic J. C. Trewin (1908-1990)

‘God bless the Duke of Argyll’: meaning and origin

19th Mar 2020.Reading time 14 minutes.

UK, 1825—the Scots, allegedly verminous, were said to rub themselves against posts erected by the Duke of Argyll and to bless the Duke when doing so

‘men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses’

18th Mar 2020.Reading time 7 minutes.

USA—from two-line poem ‘News Item’ (1926), by Dorothy Parker—has given rise to jocular variants, especially playing on ‘glasses’ (eyewear/drinking containers)

‘not waving but drowning’: meaning and origin

17th Mar 2020.Reading time 12 minutes.

used of a person whose display of distress misleads others into underestimating this distress—UK, 1962—from ‘Not Waving but Drowning’ (1954), by Stevie Smith

‘since Pontius was a pilot’: meaning and origin

15th Mar 2020.Reading time 7 minutes.

meaning: ‘for a very long time’—UK, 1944—with a pun on ‘Pilate’, originated in the British Royal Air Force during the Second World War

‘the more firma, the less terra’: meanings and origin

14th Mar 2020.Reading time 7 minutes.

expresses distrust at air or sea travel—USA, 1926—with a pun on ‘terror’, jocularly decouples from each other the components of ‘terra firma’ (firm land)