meaning and origin of ‘to be unable to run a whelk stall’

30th May 2018.Reading time 7 minutes.

‘to be unable to run a whelk stall’ and variants: to be incapable of managing the simplest task or enterprise—coined by John Elliot Burns (1858-1943), English trade unionist and politician, in the 1894 New Year’s address to his constituents of Battersea

the cinematographic origin of ‘boy meets girl’

28th May 2018.Reading time 5 minutes.

used with reference to a conventional or idealised romance—originated (USA, 1931) in cinematographic plot summaries in which ‘boy meets girl’ featured

the British phrase ‘to talk the hind leg off a donkey’

27th May 2018.Reading time 6 minutes.

1808, as ‘to talk a horse’s hind leg off’—‘[animal’s] hind leg off’ is probably a hyperbolic extension of ‘to talk’, emphasising the speaker’s persistence or eloquence

the British phrase ‘to throw a spanner in(to) the works’

25th May 2018.Reading time 5 minutes.

British, 1925—‘to throw a spanner in(to) the works’: to cause disruption, to interfere with the smooth running of something—synonym (American English): ‘to throw a monkey wrench into’

origin of ‘throw a monkey wrench into’: threshing machines

25th May 2018.Reading time 7 minutes.

The original image was of throwing a monkey wrench into the cylinder of a threshing machine, and was exclusively applied to political situations—USA, late 19th century.

How ‘lion’ came to denote a celebrity.

25th May 2018.Reading time 12 minutes.

‘lion’: a person of note or celebrity who is much sought after—from ‘lions’: things of note, celebrity, or curiosity in a town, etc.—from the practice of taking visitors to see the lions which used to be kept in the Tower of London

origin of ‘the lion’s share’: ‘le partage du lion’

24th May 2018.Reading time 7 minutes.

‘the lion’s share’ (UK, 1790)—calque of French ‘le partage du lion’ (now ‘la part du lion’)—from ‘The Heifer, the She-Goat, and the Ewe, in partnership with the Lion’, a fable by Jean de La Fontaine (1621-95)

‘to go to hell – or to heaven – in a handbasket’

23rd May 2018.Reading time 11 minutes.

‘hell in a handbasket’ (1841), ‘heaven in a handbasket’ (1834) in Irish contexts—‘handbasket’ chosen for alliteration with ‘hell’—‘to go to hell in a handbasket’ meant ‘to go to hell’—‘to go to heaven in a handbasket’ meant ‘to go to heaven’ or ‘to go to hell’

the phrase ‘a snowball’s chance (in hell)’

22nd May 2018.Reading time 6 minutes.

‘a snowball’s chance in hell’: no chance at all (USA, 1880)—elliptically, ‘a snowball’s chance’ (USA, 1895)—in the 1880s, ‘a snowball in hell’ was also used as a term of comparison to denote something that disappears rapidly

the authentic—and simple—origin of ‘sleep tight’

21st May 2018.Reading time 5 minutes.

In the phrase ‘sleep tight’ (USA, 1873), the adjective ‘tight’ is used as an adverb meaning ‘soundly’, i.e. ‘deeply and without disturbance’, as in the combination ‘tight asleep’ (USA, 1847).