‘couldn’t lead a flock of homing pigeons’: meaning and origin

13th Jul 2022.Reading time 8 minutes.

used of a person who is incapable of organising the simplest event, task, etc.—Australian politics, 1945, as a comment on Robert Gordon Menzies, generally ascribed to William Morris Hughes

‘(as) mad as a (cut) snake’: meaning and origin

11th Jul 2022.Reading time 15 minutes.

out of one’s mind, extremely annoyed—Australia, 1900; New Zealand, 1907—originally as ‘(as) mad as a snake’, ‘(as) mad as snakes’ and variants—later as ‘(as) mad as a cut snake’

‘Bugs Bunny’ (i.e., an eagle)

4th Jul 2022.Reading time 5 minutes.

Australia, 1954—derogatory nickname for the metal eagle at the top of the Australian-American Memorial in Canberra—alludes to the fact that, from a distance, the eagle’s upswept wings look like a rabbit’s ears

‘dinnyhayser’: meanings (and origin?)

2nd Jul 2022.Reading time 13 minutes.

Australia, 1878—a knockout blow; anything of exceptional size or force—allegedly alludes to a boxer called Dinny Hayes—but no evidence supports this allegation

‘panier de crabes’: meaning and origin

30th Jun 2022.Reading time 11 minutes.

1942—an arena of fierce or ruthless rivalry—borrowed from French: literally ‘basket of crabs’—the image is of crabs fighting, if not devouring one another, when kept in a basket

‘within a bull’s roar of’: a measure of distance

25th Jun 2022.Reading time 6 minutes.

Australia, 1930—when used negatively, means ‘far away from’; when used affirmatively, means ‘not too far away from’—refers to the fact that a roaring bull can be heard over a great distance

‘boudoir bandicoot’: meaning and origin

23rd Jun 2022.Reading time 6 minutes.

Australia—a promiscuous male—coined in 1983, during a parliamentary debate, by Michael Hodgman, then Member of the Australian House of Representatives, to describe Bob Hawke, then Prime Minister of Australia

‘kippers and curtains’: meaning and origin

17th Jun 2022.Reading time 11 minutes.

UK, 1934—used of a person who pretends to be well-off despite having little money—the image is of a person who has expensive curtains on the windows of their house, but subsists on a diet of inexpensive fish

‘to have a tiger by the tail’: meaning and origin

16th Jun 2022.Reading time 9 minutes.

UK, 1826—to find oneself in a situation that has turned out to be difficult to control but cannot be got out of—the image is that someone holding a tiger by the tail can neither keep hold of it nor let go of it with safety

‘to put a tiger in one’s tank’: meaning and origin

15th Jun 2022.Reading time 11 minutes.

to invest one with energy—USA, 1959 & 1960—used as an advertising slogan by both Oklahoma Oil Company and Humble Oil & Refining Company—this advertising slogan soon became a popular catchphrase

word histories

Tag: animals