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Tag: agriculture

‘(as) cold as a stepmother’s breath’: meanings and origin

26th Sep 2020.Reading time 10 minutes.

Irish English, 1834—extremely cold, literally (i.e., with reference to low temperatures) and figuratively (i.e., with reference to lack of feeling, of emotion)

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‘too thick to drink and too thin to plow’

9th Sep 2020.Reading time 11 minutes.

U.S.—used in reference to several muddy rivers, and, occasionally, to other waterbodies—originally (1890 to 1902) used in reference to the Missouri River

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‘Onion Johnny’: meaning and cultural background

31st Aug 2020.Reading time 18 minutes.

UK, 1877—an onion-seller from Brittany who sold onions door-to-door around the coasts of Britain—used with modifying word, ‘Johnny’ designates a person of the type, profession, etc., specified

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‘silent like the ‘p’ in swimming’: meaning and early occurrences

24th Aug 2020.Reading time 5 minutes.

USA, 1925—With, of course, a pun on ‘pee’, meaning ‘to urinate’, the jocular phrase ‘silent like (the) ‘p’ in swimming’ is used when exposing a difficulty in pronunciation.

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notes on ‘a green winter makes a fat churchyard’

17th Jun 2020.Reading time 14 minutes.

refers to the fact that the winter cold is essential to plants and crops—UK, first recorded in the mid-17th century, but already proverbial

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‘mushroom treatment: kept in the dark and fed bullshit’

1st Jan 2020.Reading time 9 minutes.

American English, 1965—signification: to be kept in a state of ignorance and told nonsense—in use a few years later in Australian English and British English

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origin and sense development of the verb ‘shanghai’

16th Jul 2019.Reading time 12 minutes.

USA—1853 to kidnap for service aboard ship—seems to have originated in San Francisco—refers to Shanghai in China, the ships in question going to eastern Asia

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the curious case of the French word ‘oignon’

16th Jun 2019.Reading time 12 minutes.

Decided by the Académie française, the erroneous spelling ‘oignon’ (= ‘onion’) has become a symbol of prejudiced people, ignorant of the history of their own language.

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origin of ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’

24th May 2019.Reading time 19 minutes.

UK, 1892—postdates by several years variants such as ‘eat an apple on going to bed, and you will keep the doctor from earning his bread’

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early American-English figurative uses of ‘rock bottom’

1st May 2019.Reading time 20 minutes.

1858-60 steadfast political commitment—1861-62 sureness—1864-65 very low retail prices—1895-66 (economics) the lowest possible level (?)

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