‘husband’s tea’ meaning and origin
UK, 1837—very weak tea—from the fact that the wife drank the first brew, and then, to make her husband’s tea, filled the pot with water, adding no fresh leaves
Read More‘ships that pass in the night’: meanings and origin
people who meet for a short time, by chance, and then do not see each other again—people who, although living together, are unable to see very much of each other—coined in 1873 by the U.S. poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Read More‘damsel in distress’: meaning and early occurrences
the clichéd literary topos of a young woman who is in trouble and needs a man’s help—1694, in a text by Joseph Addison
Read More‘gallows-humour’: meaning and origin
grim and ironical humour—UK, 1860, in reference to the practice of public executions—UK, 1870, as a loan translation from German ‘Galgenhumor’, in the context of the Franco-Prussian War
Read More‘candid camera’: meaning and origin
UK, 1929—a small camera for taking informal photographs of persons, usually without their knowledge—earlier occurrences (UK & USA, from 1907 to 1924) are often of unclear meaning
Read More‘to get a guernsey’: meanings and origin
Australia, 1918—to get selected for a task, to gain recognition or approval, to succeed—the image is of getting selected in a sporting team (‘guernsey’: a shirt worn by soccer or rugby players)
Read More‘shaggy-dog story’: meaning and early occurrences
USA, 1914—origin unknown—a long rambling joke ending in a deliberate anticlimax, such as an absurd or irrelevant punchline
Read Morethe noun ‘pig tracks’ in U.S. phrases
in the phrases ‘(as) regular as pig tracks’ (1853) and ‘(as) common as pig tracks’ (1854), the plural noun ‘pig tracks’ is an intensifier—Southern United States
Read More‘piscinity’: meaning and origin
USA, 1859—humorous—the quality or condition of being a fish—from the prefix ‘pisci-’ (of, or relating to, fish) and the suffix ‘-ity’ (after the noun ‘humanity’)
Read More‘dreamcatcher’: original meaning
USA, 1943—a mattress, a pillow, pyjamas, etc., advertised as ensuring a good night’s sleep
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word histories 