origin of ‘tart’ (promiscuous woman)

14th Jul 2016.Reading time 4 minutes.

MEANING a woman who dresses or behaves in a way that is considered tasteless and sexually provocative ORIGIN John Camden Hotten defined this word in Dictionary of modern slang, cant, and vulgar words (1864 edition): a term of approval applied by the London lower orders to a young woman for whom some […]

origin of ‘to sack’ (to dismiss from employment)

14th Jul 2016.Reading time 8 minutes.

The verb to sack (someone) means to dismiss (someone) from employment. This verb seems to have appeared in the first half of the 19th century. For example, the Perthshire Courier (Scotland) of Thursday 29th April 1841 reported that at the Glasgow assizes, during the trial for the murder of a superintendent of Railway labourers, one […]

origin of ‘Ajax’ (an outdoor toilet)

12th Jul 2016.Reading time 17 minutes.

This word means a toilet, especially an outdoor one. The following is from A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues (1611), by Randle Cotgrave: Retraict [modern French retrait]: masculine. An Aiax, Priuie, house of Office [= outdoor toilet]. It is a humorous respelling of a jakes, of same meaning, after Ajax, the name […]

origin of ‘as fit as a fiddle’

10th Jul 2016.Reading time 7 minutes.

Caricature of Gabriel Harvey from Haue with you to Saffron-walden. Or, Gabriell Harueys hunt is vp (1596), by Thomas Nashe. Entitled The picture of Gabriell Harvey as he is readie to let fly upon Ajax, this caricature depicts him rushing to the toilet at the thought of Nashe’s publication. Ajax was a pun on […]

origin of ‘from pillar to post’

9th Jul 2016.Reading time 12 minutes.

The phrase from pillar to post means from one place to another in an unceremonious or fruitless manner. Its earliest recorded form is from post to pillar in The Assembly of Gods, an anonymous dream-vision allegory most likely written in the early fourth quarter of the 15th century (it was initially attributed to John Lydgate (1370-1449) […]

meaning and origin of ‘gongoozler’

9th Jul 2016.Reading time 8 minutes.

The noun ‘gongoozler’, denoting a person who stares protractedly at anything, originally designated an idler who stares at length at activity on a canal.

original meaning of ‘to frog-march’

8th Jul 2016.Reading time 10 minutes.

The verb to frog-march (somebody) means to force (somebody) to walk forward by holding and pinning their arms from behind. This sense is milder than the original, as the frog’s march was a police metaphor denoting a method of moving a resistant person such as a prisoner, in which he or she is lifted by […]

the apple of one’s eye – la prunelle de ses yeux

8th Jul 2016.Reading time 6 minutes.

In early use, apple was a general term for all kinds of fruits other than berries, including even nuts. In fact, apple and berry are the only Anglo-Saxon fruit names, the rest being of Latin or ‘exotic’ origin. This is why apple was commonly used in describing foreign fruits, which explains for example the word […]

the authentic origin of ‘a pretty kettle of fish’

6th Jul 2016.Reading time 11 minutes.

The phrase ‘a pretty kettle of fish’ originally referred to a net full of fish, which, when drawn up with its contents, is suggestive of confusion, flurry and disorder—‘kettle’ being a form of ‘kiddle’, a noun denoting a dam or other barrier in a river, with an opening fitted with nets to catch fish.

meaning and origin of ‘Shanks’s pony’

5th Jul 2016.Reading time 7 minutes.

“Go by Shanks’ pony – Walk short distances and leave room for those who have longer journeys” – a Second World War poster by Lewitt-Him for the Ministry of War Transport – image: Imperial War Museums The phrase Shanks’(s) pony, or mare, etc, means one’s own legs as a means of conveyance. It is […]