the birth of the colourful noun ‘cackleberry’
USA, 1889—humorous, informal: a hen’s egg—composed of ‘cackle’, the raucous clucking cry given by a hen, especially after laying an egg, and of ‘berry’
Read MoreTag: animals
meaning and origin of the American-English phrase ‘(strictly) for the birds’
army slang, early 1940s—euphemistic shortening of ‘shit for the birds’—seems to allude to birds eating droppings from horses and cattle
Read MoreWhy ‘gerrymander’ was originally the name of a monstrous salamander.
the drawing of the ‘Gerry-mander’ and the accompanying text—as published in the Boston Gazette (Boston, Massachusetts) of 26 March 1812
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘a bad quarter of an hour’
UK, 1755—loan translation from French ‘un mauvais quart d’heure’ (1710), which has also been used in English since 1830
Read Moremeaning and early instances of the phrase ‘like shooting fish in a barrel’
very easy to accomplish—USA, 1902, although recorded in 1898 with perhaps a different meaning
Read Moremeaning and early instances of ‘as the bishop said to the actress’
UK, 1930—‘as the bishop said to the actress’, ‘as the actress said to the bishop’: mischievously implies a sexual innuendo or ambiguity in a preceding innocent remark
Read More‘culture vulture’ (a person who is voracious for culture)
USA, 1931—phrase based on the phonetic similarity of the two words that compose it—implies lack of discrimination
Read Morehistory of ‘crow’s nest’ (lookout platform on a ship’s mast)
UK, early 19th century—The invention of the crow’s nest is attributed to the Arctic whaler William Scoresby Senior (1760-1829).
Read Moreorigin of the phrase ‘as the crow flies’ (in a straight line)
Attested in 1761, ‘as the crow flies’ originally referred to the interior of a country; it did not originate in a practice of early navigation at sea.
Read Moreorigin of ‘gone coon’ (a person or thing that is beyond hope)
USA, 1837—The image is of a racoon that has been treed but the construction ‘gone + animal name’ has more generally been used in phrases of same sense.
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