early instances of the phrase ‘tin god’
1875 in The Evening News (Indianapolis, USA)—in reference to tin as a base metal, ‘tin’ is used in the senses ‘petty’, ‘worthless’, ‘counterfeit’
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meanings and origin of the term ‘God’s acre’
churchyard—from German ‘Gottesacker’, literally ‘God’s field’—image of the bodies of the dead sown like seeds in order to bear fruit at the time of resurrection
Read Morehistory of the phrase ‘tin Jesus’
USA, 1874, as ‘a little tin Jesus on wheels’—in reference to tin as a base metal, ‘tin’ is used figuratively in the senses ‘petty’, ‘worthless’, ‘counterfeit’
Read Moremeanings and origin of the British phrase ‘to come the (old) acid’
to behave in an unpleasant, aggressive or overbearing manner; to speak in a sarcastic or caustic way—British Army slang, World War I
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘this is where we came in’
when there were consecutive screenings of a film, spectators could start watching at any point and stay on to watch the first part on the next showing
Read Moreearly instances of the term ‘pompom girl’
USA, 1913—a female cheerleader who waves a pair of pompoms (large round clusters of brightly coloured streamers) in support of a sports team
Read Moremeanings and origin of the British-English phrase ‘to go west’
to die; to be lost or destroyed; to meet with disaster—1914, Army slang—probably from the notion of the setting sun symbolising disappearance or finality
Read Moreorigin of ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’
UK, 1892—postdates by several years variants such as ‘eat an apple on going to bed, and you will keep the doctor from earning his bread’
Read Moremeaning and origin of Scouse ‘Paddy’s Wigwam’
1968—Liverpool Roman Catholic cathedral—from the large number of Roman Catholics of Irish descent in Liverpool and the resemblance of the cathedral to a tepee
Read Moremeaning and origin of the British phrase ‘the acceptable face of ——’
1973—from ‘the unacceptable face of capitalism’, used by Prime Minister Edward Heath during a debate at the House of Commons on 15 May 1973
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