“ad fontes!”
various meanings, in particular: something with a larger capacity than its outward appearance suggests—UK, 1968—the name, in TV series Doctor Who, of a time machine outwardly resembling a police telephone box, yet inwardly much larger
Read MoreUK, 1972—the offence of taking a car without the owner’s consent, especially for the purpose of joyriding, which was a social phenomenon prevalent in north-eastern England—acronym for ‘taking without owner’s consent’
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USA, 1983—an acronym deliberately formed from a phrase whose initial letters spell out a particular word or words, either to enhance memorability or as a fanciful explanation of a word’s origin—blend of the adjective ‘back’ and of the noun ‘acronym’
Read MoreUK, 2005—the perceived indiscriminate and excessive use by the authorities of anti-social behaviour orders—apparently coined by Álvaro Gil-Robles, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights—‘Asbo’: acronym from the initial letters of ‘anti-social behaviour order’
Read More1970—British and Irish English—acronym from the phrase ‘all coppers are bastards’—customarily written (tattooed in particular) rather than spoken
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‘Wags’ (2002): the wives and girlfriends of the England World Cup football team—‘Gwags’ (2006): golfers’ wives and girlfriends
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USA, 1984—the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards viewed as a single achievement—coined by U.S. actor and musician Philip Michael Thomas
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UK, 1992 (coined by Terence Blacker)—a novel depicting the lives and concerns of the British rural middle classes—from the association of Aga cookers with those classes
Read MoreUSA, 1979—acronym from ‘not in my back yard’—first used in ‘the Nimby syndrome’ with reference to the disposal of nuclear waste
Read MoreUSA, 1956—acronym from ‘white Anglo-Saxon Protestant’—‘Wasp’, or ‘WASP’: a person who belongs to, or is thought of, as being part of a white, upper middle-class, northern European, Protestant group that dominates economic, political and cultural activity in the USA
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word histories 