“ad fontes!”
USA 1920: ‘to have the brains of a goldfish’ (to have limited intelligence)—USA, 1958: ‘to have the memory of a goldfish’ (to be unable to retain information or memories for any significant length of time)
Read MoreUSA, 1977—petroleum, and any liquid derived from petroleum used in a vehicle powered by an internal-combustion engine—perhaps from popular association of ‘dinosaur’ with ‘fossil fuel’
Read MoreBritish, dialectal, 1828: the break of day, i.e., the dawn chorus, with humorous allusion to a small passerine breaking wind—later also: an insignificant person or thing
Read More‘stop talking (and get to the heart of the matter)’—UK, 1878—said to have been coined by circus proprietor Andrew Ducrow when apostrophising equestrian performers
Read MoreUK, 1866, sailors’ slang: a straw mattress—Australia, 1884: a straw hat—in reference to donkeys’ diet
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1910s—a ship designed to carry submarines—likens the submarines carried in such ships to the immature young nursed in the abdominal pouch of female kangaroos
Read Moreto be in control of a situation; to be in a dominant position—USA, 1899—originally (USA, 1867) used in reference to hunting game animals
Read Morenonsense, rubbish—USA, first decade of the 20th century—probably a euphemism for the noun ‘bullshit’, with the noun ‘dust’ used in the sense of ‘rubbish’, ‘garbage’
Read Moreliterally (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 MoreUSA, 1867—all over the place, in disarray—perhaps originally used by cattlemen of mobs of cattle all over the place
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word histories 