“ad fontes!”
literally (1845): an enclosure in which calves are isolated from their mothers until weaned—figuratively, humorously and offensively (1885): a girls’ boarding-school—similar to the use of ‘cow’ to derogatorily designate a girl or woman
Read MoreAustralia—1897: the typical bushman—1915: the typical Australian private soldier—a blend of the male forenames ‘Bill’ and ‘Jim’, as often used of bushmen
Read More1969—associated with Malcolm Fraser, Prime Minister of Australia from 1975 to 1983, who borrowed it from George Bernard Shaw’s Back to Methuselah (1921)
Read MoreNew Zealand, 1877, & Australia, 1878—to be inexperienced, to be gullible
Read Moreis used of waterlogged land—USA,1859—Australia, 1874—now chiefly Australian
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chiefly Australian, 20th century—formula for estimating the size of rural holdings—also used figuratively of someone who talks boastfully without acting on their words
Read MoreAustralia, 1932—also ‘Flemington confetti’ (1933) and ‘farmyard confetti’ (1967)—bullshit (i.e., nonsense, rubbish)—also occasionally used literally in the sense of faeces
Read MoreUK, 1967—indicates that something has been formulated or devised hurriedly, roughly or carelessly, as though sketched or scribbled on the back of a cigarette packet
Read Morealso ‘game as an ant’, ‘game as a bulldog ant’, etc.—Australia, 1874—plucky, courageous, willing to put up a fight against considerable odds
Read MoreAustralia, 1911—a potato farmer—composed of ‘spud’ (a potato) and ‘cocky’ (a farmer working a small-scale farm)—‘cocky’: shortened form of ‘cockatoo’ (a farmer working a small-scale farm)
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word histories 