‘to come to a sticky end’: meaning and early occurrences
to die, or to come to grief, in violent or exceptionally unpleasant circumstances—Australia, 1897—here, the adjective ‘sticky’ means ‘unpleasant’
Read More‘leather and prunella’: meaning and origin
something of no value, something to which one is utterly indifferent—UK, 1785—derives from a misinterpretation of “Worth makes the Man, and Want of it the Fellow;/The rest, is all but Leather or Prunella.” in An Essay on Man (1734), by Alexander Pope
Read More‘to say prunes’: meaning and early occurrences
to speak the plural noun ‘prunes’ aloud in order to form the lips into an attractive shape—UK, 1846—particularly associated with portrait photography; also with kissing
Read More‘poacher turned gamekeeper’: meaning and origin
a person who now preserves the interests that he or she previously attacked—UK, 19th century—but the notion occurred in Chaucer’s Physician’s Tale and ‘the greatest deer-stealers make the best park-keepers’ in The Church-History of Britain (1655)
Read More‘simples’: meaning and origin
interjection used to suggest that something can be done or understood with no difficulty—UK, 2009—from the catchword uttered by Aleksandr Orlov, an animated Russian meerkat, in a television advertising campaign for comparethemarket.com
Read More‘Rachmanism’: meaning and origin
the exploitation and intimidation of tenants by unscrupulous landlords—UK, 1963—refers to Peter Rachman, a London landlord whose unscrupulous practices became notorious in the early 1960s
Read More‘to paint the Forth Bridge’: meaning and origin
used of any never-ending or arduous task—UK, 1923—alludes to the huge task of maintaining the painted surfaces of the railway bridge over the Firth of Forth, in central Scotland
Read More‘Kensington Gore’ (as applied to artificial blood)
UK, 1971—a pun on ‘Kensington Gore’, the name of a thoroughfare in London, and on the noun ‘gore’, denoting blood shed from a wound—it is unclear whether ‘Kensington Gore’ (as applied to artificial blood) was originally a trademark
Read More‘mockumentary’: meaning and early occurrences
denotes a film, television programme, etc., which adopts the form of a serious documentary in order to satirise its subject—apparently first used (and perhaps coined) in 1952 by the Canadian television producer Ross McLean
Read More‘Iron Weathercock’ (as applied to Liz Truss)
UK, 2022— translates French ‘girouette de fer’—a derisive nickname for Liz Truss, in reference both to ‘Iron Lady’ (a nickname for Margaret Thatcher) and to Liz Truss’s changing views on a variety of subjects
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