the Roman origin of ‘Punic faith’
from Latin ‘Pūnica fidēs’, literally ‘Phoenician faith’, meaning ‘perfidy’, with reference to Carthage, the enemy of Rome over several centuries
Read Morethe mistaken origin of ‘white elephant’ in the Oxford English Dictionary
refers to the rarity of white elephants and to the story that the king of Pegu waged war on the king of Siam, who had refused to sell him one
Read Morethe theatrical origin of ‘claptrap’
first half of the 18th century—‘clap trap’: a use of language designed to capture (i.e. trap) a theatrical audience’s applause (i.e. clapping)
Read Morethe melodramatic origin of ‘cloak-and-dagger’
possibly from ‘cloak and sword’, from Spanish ‘(comedia) de capa y espada’, a type of dramas in which the main characters wore cloaks and swords or daggers
Read Moremistaken etymology of ‘not to give a XXXX’ in the Oxford English Dictionary
UK, 1972—‘XXXX’: a euphemistic substitute for a four-letter swear word, usually ‘fuck’—it did not originally refer to the Australian lager Castlemaine XXXX
Read Moreorigin of ‘vamoose’
from Spanish ‘vamos’, ‘let us go’—first recorded as ‘vamos’ in ‘Every Night Book; or, Life after Dark’ (London, 1827), by the English author William Clarke
Read Morethe Cantabrigian origin of ‘wooden spoon’
originally, at Cambridge University: oversized wooden spoon given to the candidate coming last in the mathematical tripos (BA-degree final honours examination)
Read Morethe Shakespearean origin of ‘sea change’
from ‘Full Fathom Five’, Ariel’s song to Ferdinand in ‘The Tempest’, by Shakespeare, where ‘sea change’ denotes a change brought about by the action of the sea
Read More‘something is rotten in the state of Denmark’: origin
from the observation made by the soldier Marcellus in ‘Hamlet’, by Shakespeare, when the eponymous character is following the ghost of his father
Read Morethe Shakespearean origin of ‘salad days’
‘salad days’: days of youthful inexperience—coined by Shakespeare in ‘Antony and Cleopatra’—alludes to the raw (green and cold) vegetables used in a salad
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