“ad fontes!”
UK, 1894—a love-relationship in which one member of a married couple is involved with a third party—loan translation from French ‘triangle éternel’, coined by Alexandre Dumas fils in L’Homme-Femme (1872), a pamphlet about a wronged husband’s right to take the life of his adulterous wife
Read MoreUK, 1856—a talisman associated with a woman—a woman likened to a talisman, especially a female sports player regarded as the leading representative of her team—alteration of ‘talisman’ with substitution of ‘woman’ for the element ‘‑man’
Read More‘cauliflower ear’ (USA, 1887)—French calque ‘oreille en chou-fleur’ (1913)—an ear permanently deformed as a result of injuries from repeated blows, as in boxing
Read Moreto perform outstandingly well—UK, 1902, originally in football: to play an excellent game—the image may be of a footballer whose speed and skill overpower opponents
Read MoreUK, 1942—a weekly hour of religious instruction provided by chaplains to British-Army units—‘padre’ (literally ‘father’) is colloquially used to designate and address a male chaplain in the armed forces
Read MoreUK, 1922—used in negative constructions with a following noun to mean ‘a single ——’, ‘any ——’; the nouns most commonly used in those constructions are ‘notice’ and ‘difference’
Read Morean apparent misfortune that works to the eventual good of the recipient—first half of the 18th century (from 1713 onwards) in the plural form ‘blessings in disguise’
Read Morea profession which has long been established or which is regarded as having similarities with prostitution—also sometimes used jocularly—alludes to ‘the oldest profession in the world’ (i.e., prostitution)
Read Moreprostitution—1889 as ‘the most ancient profession in the world’ in On the City Wall, by Rudyard Kipling—was used earlier, with positive connotations, of various professions, especially agriculture
Read Morein a state of nudity—1732 as ‘in one’s birthday clothes’—refers to the naked condition in which a person is born—here, ‘birthday’ means ‘the day on which a person was born’
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word histories 