“ad fontes!”
Canada, 1857: an angelic being imagined as being the source of a fall of snow—USA, 1893 (?): an impression in the snow resembling an angel, made by lying on one’s back and moving one’s arms and legs back and forth in an arc along the ground
Read More1937—a shortened form of expressions such as ‘bed-and-breakfast place’ (first recorded in 1881)
Read MoreIreland, 1803—the provision of a bed for the night and breakfast the following morning, especially at a fixed rate, in a hotel, inn, or private home
Read MoreUK, 1827—a rolled jam pudding or currant dumpling—also (Sussex): a roly-poly suet pudding made with slices of bacon
Read MoreUK, 1801—said of a dead person: to be likely to have reacted with horror to something if they were still alive to experience it
Read More1927 (translation of German ‘Hackordnung’): a dominance hierarchy, seen especially in domestic poultry, that is maintained by one bird pecking another of lower status—hence (1929): any hierarchy based on rank or status
Read MoreUSA, 1972—a chilling warning given to somebody—from Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather (1972), in which the severed head of a horse is left as a warning in a film producer’s bed
Read MoreUK, 1806—‘to be able to sleep at night’: to be untroubled by the moral consequences of one’s actions, or by the risks and responsibilities of one’s situation
Read MoreUSA, 1951—to act in a way that inadvertently damages one’s cause or reputation or spoils one’s chances—alludes to accidental shooting
Read MoreFrench, 1848; English, 1861—a small, oblong cake made of choux pastry, filled with cream, and typically topped with chocolate icing—literally ‘lightning’—origin unknown
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word histories 