‘mockumentary’: meaning and early occurrences

7th Sep 2022.Reading time 7 minutes.

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

‘Iron Weathercock’ (as applied to Liz Truss)

6th Sep 2022.Reading time 5 minutes.

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

‘bothsideism’ | ‘bothsidesism’: meanings and early occurrences

5th Sep 2022.Reading time 17 minutes.

USA, 1974—the news media’s practice of giving credence to the other side of an opinion or action in order to seem fair, even though that other side is objectionable

‘panda’ (as applied to a police patrol car)

4th Sep 2022.Reading time 8 minutes.

UK, 1966—a police patrol car having a broad white stripe painted on a dark background—alludes to the black-and-white fur of the giant panda

‘panda’ (as applied to a pedestrian crossing)

3rd Sep 2022.Reading time 8 minutes.

UK, 1962—a type of pedestrian crossing distinguished by black-and-white chevrons marked on the road, and having traffic warning lights activated by people wishing to cross—alludes to the black-and-white fur of the giant panda

‘a long streak of pelican shit’: meaning and origin

2nd Sep 2022.Reading time 6 minutes.

a tall person—Australia, 1968, in the stage play Norm and Ahmed, by Alexander Buzo—gained currency from occurring in the film Gallipoli (1981), scripted by David Williamson

‘Dorothy Dix’ (as used in Australian politics)

1st Sep 2022.Reading time 9 minutes.

a parliamentary question which the respondent knows will be asked, intended to prompt a prepared reply—1934—refers to the question-and-answer column by Dorothy Dix, pseudonym of U.S. journalist Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer

‘winter of discontent’ (as applied to the winter of 1978-79 in Britain)

31st Aug 2022.Reading time 13 minutes.

has been used since September 1978 to denote the winter of 1978-79 in the United Kingdom, during which widespread strikes took place in protest against the then Labour government’s wage limits

‘Morrison hour’: meaning and origin

30th Aug 2022.Reading time 9 minutes.

UK, 1949—an extra hour added to the end of a prison officer’s working day—from the fact that this extra hour was introduced during WWII by Herbert Stanley Morrison, Secretary of State for Home Affairs and Home Security

‘sunlit uplands’ (as applied to post-Brexit Britain)

29th Aug 2022.Reading time 12 minutes.

The phrase ‘sunlit uplands’ denotes an idealised or longed-for future time of happiness, prosperity, good fortune, etc. Popularised by Winston Churchill in 1940, this phrase has been associated with the bright future that Brexit was supposed to usher in.