‘daylight robbery’: meanings and early occurrences

11th Oct 2022.Reading time 15 minutes.

UK, 1804—literal meaning: a robbery committed during daylight hours, often characterised as particularly conspicuous or risky—figurative meaning: blatant and unfair overcharging or swindling

‘pizza face’: meaning and origin

9th Oct 2022.Reading time 8 minutes.

a person with facial acne—Californian high-school slang, 1963—in this expression, the pimples caused by facial acne are likened to slices of pepperoni on a pizza

‘prunes and prism(s)’: meaning and origin

8th Oct 2022.Reading time 16 minutes.

a prim or affected facial expression or manner of speaking; affected mannerisms, superficial accomplishments—originally, in Little Dorrit (1857), by Charles Dickens, a phrase spoken aloud in order to form the lips into an attractive shape

‘to go for the jugular’: meaning and origin

7th Oct 2022.Reading time 10 minutes.

to criticise or attack somebody aggressively or decisively; to target an adversary’s weakest or most vulnerable point—USA, 1879—the image is of attacking a person fatally in the throat or neck, where the jugular vein runs

notes on ‘no joy without alloy’

6th Oct 2022.Reading time 6 minutes.

also ‘no joy without annoy’—meaning: there is a trace of trouble or difficulty in every pleasure—was already a common proverb in the late sixteenth century

‘early doors’ (near the beginning)

4th Oct 2022.Reading time 9 minutes.

UK, 1976—the colloquial phrase ‘early doors’ means ‘early on’, ‘at an early stage’—frequently occurs in the context of football—of unknown origin

‘early door(s)’ (early admission to a theatrical performance)

3rd Oct 2022.Reading time 13 minutes.

UK, 1877—a period of admission ending some time before the beginning of a theatrical performance, in order to offer a guaranteed seat or a wider selection of seating, typically for a higher price

‘to go (and) jump in(to) the lake’: meaning and origin

2nd Oct 2022.Reading time 10 minutes.

to go away and stop being a nuisance—chiefly used in the imperative as a contemptuous dismissal—USA, 1883—the image is of somebody jumping into a lake and drowning

‘Bardolatry’: meaning and origin

1st Oct 2022.Reading time 9 minutes.

excessive reverence for William Shakespeare—1901, coined by George Bernard Shaw—from ‘the Bard’, an epithet of William Shakespeare, and the combining form ‘-olatry’, forming nouns with the sense ‘worship of’, ‘excessive reverence for’

‘humongous’: meaning and origin

30th Sep 2022.Reading time 8 minutes.

extremely large, huge, enormous—USA, 1967—of uncertain origin; probably a factitious adjective coined on the suffix ‘-ous’, influenced by ‘hugeous’ and ‘monstrous’, and perhaps by the stress-patterns of ‘stupendous’, ‘tremendous’, etc.