‘unshirted hell’: meaning and origin

29th Mar 2022.Reading time 7 minutes.

‘serious trouble’—USA, 1866—from the image of taking off one’s shirt before getting into a fight, and from ‘hell’ in the sense of ‘a severe reprimand’, as in ‘to give someone hell’

‘gobsmacked’: meaning and origin

27th Mar 2022.Reading time 9 minutes.

‘flabbergasted’, ‘astounded’—1925, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, north-eastern England—in reference to the shock effect of being struck in the mouth, from the noun ‘gob’, denoting ‘the mouth’, and the adjective ‘smacked’, meaning ‘struck’

‘caught in the headlights’: meanings and origin

26th Mar 2022.Reading time 12 minutes.

used of a person who is frozen with fright or surprise, or is trying to flee, as a result of suddenly becoming the focus of attention—alludes to the habit of deer and rabbits of stopping still when dazzled by the headlights of a motor vehicle, or of running away within the headlight beam

‘like the back (end) of a bus’: meaning and origin

25th Mar 2022.Reading time 8 minutes.

UK, 1934—used of a person regarded as physically unattractive or sexually undesirable

‘femiphobia’ & ‘feminophobia’: meaning and origin

23rd Mar 2022.Reading time 14 minutes.

‘femiphobia’ (USA) 1907—‘feminophobia’ (UK) 1914—an irrational fear or dislike of women—from Latin ‘fēmina’ (woman) and combining form ‘-phobia’—probably each coined on various occasions by different persons, independently from each other

‘croque-madame’: meanings and origin

22nd Mar 2022.Reading time 10 minutes.

1932—coined after ‘croque-monsieur’—a toasted or fried sandwich filled with ham and cheese and topped with a poached or fried egg—but originally denoted any of various types of toasted or fried sandwich

‘well, I’ll go to the foot of our stairs’: meaning and early occurrences

21st Mar 2022.Reading time 7 minutes.

UK (Midlands), 1939—exclamative phrase used to express astonishment or incredulity—the reason that this metaphor was chosen is unknown

‘brothel-creepers’: meaning and origin

20th Mar 2022.Reading time 6 minutes.

1943—‘brothel-creepers’ (also ‘brothel-creeper shoes’ and ‘creepers’): denotes soft-soled shoes—refers to the stealthiness that those shoes permit

The meaning of ‘temptation’ in the Lord’s Prayer

19th Mar 2022.Reading time 4 minutes.

[Preliminary note: All the biblical quotations in English are from the New International Version (2011).] Le Notre-Père, the French version of the Lord’s Prayer, was revised in La Bible : Traduction officielle liturgique (Paris: Éditions Mame, 2013), the official liturgical translation of the Bible. French-speaking Catholics used to say: Et ne nous soumets pas à la […]

‘powfagged’: meaning and origin

18th Mar 2022.Reading time 7 minutes.

meaning: ‘extremely tired’—origin (Lancashire, England, 1859): from the noun ‘pow’, variant of ‘poll’, denoting ‘a person’s head’, and the adjective ‘fagged’, meaning ‘extremely tired’