‘truth is stranger than fiction’: meaning and origin

14th Mar 2023.Reading time 7 minutes.

real events and situations are often more remarkable or incredible than those made up in fiction—first occurred as ‘truth is always strange, stranger than fiction’ in Don Juan (1823), by George Gordon Byron

‘to swear like a trooper’: meaning and origin

13th Mar 2023.Reading time 9 minutes.

to use a lot of swearwords—first used in 1713 by Joseph Addison—alludes to the fact that troopers (i.e., soldiers of low rank in the cavalry) had a reputation for coarse language and behaviour

to be caught with one’s pants down’: meaning and origin

11th Mar 2023.Reading time 10 minutes.

to be caught off-guard; to be surprised in an embarrassing or compromising situation—USA, 1886

‘the oldest trick in the book’: meaning and origin

10th Mar 2023.Reading time 9 minutes.

a ruse or stratagem that is still effective although it has been used for a long time—USA, 1929—seems to have originated in sports

‘town and gown’: meaning and origin

8th Mar 2023.Reading time 11 minutes.

1750—the non-academic inhabitants (‘town’) of a university city and the resident members of the university (‘gown’, denoting the distinctive costume of a member of a university)

‘tinfoil hat’ (used in relation to protection)

5th Mar 2023.Reading time 11 minutes.

alludes to the belief that such a hat or cap protects the wearer from mind control, surveillance or similar types of threat—USA, 1972 as ‘tinfoil-lined hat’

‘pipsqueak’: meanings and origin

4th Mar 2023.Reading time 14 minutes.

a person or thing that is insignificant or contemptible—1910—originally (1900): a type of small high-velocity shell, with reference to the high-pitched sound of its discharge and flight

‘blouson noir’: meaning and origin

2nd Mar 2023.Reading time 20 minutes.

in French contexts: a young person, especially a young man, belonging to a youth subculture of the 1950s and 1960s—UK, 1959—from the noun ‘blouson’ (a short jacket) and the adjective ‘noir’ (black)

‘to throw someone under the bus’: meaning and origin

26th Feb 2023.Reading time 38 minutes.

to abandon or betray someone in order to protect or advance one’s own interests—originally (British politics, 1971) ‘to push someone under a bus’—derived from ‘to walk under a bus’ (British politics, 1966)

‘few and far between’: meanings and origin

24th Feb 2023.Reading time 8 minutes.

scarce; infrequent; difficult to find or to come by—one early use in 1668—but popularised by the Irish author Thomas Campbell in The Pleasures of Hope (1799)