‘to come up with the rations’: meaning and origin
military slang, derisive—of military medals and decorations: to be awarded automatically, without regard to merit—coined during the First World War
Read MoreTag: Arthur Guy Empey
meanings and origin of the British phrase ‘to come the (old) acid’
to behave in an unpleasant, aggressive or overbearing manner; to speak in a sarcastic or caustic way—British Army slang, World War I
Read Morefrom the trenches of WWI: ‘cootie’ (‘body louse’)
from army use on the Western Front during World War One: ‘cootie’, ‘body louse’, ‘cooty’, ‘infested with lice’, ‘coot’, ‘louse’, probably ultimately refer to the aquatic bird called ‘coot’, reputed to be lice-infested
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘over the top’
‘Over the top’, which means ‘excessive’, originated as a WWI expression meaning ‘over the parapet of a trench and into battle’.
Read Moreorigin of ‘Maconochie’ (tinned stew)
Maconochie Brothers was a company set up in 1873 by Archibald (1854-1926) and James (1850-1895) Maconochie. (Maconochie is a surname derived from the Gaelic Macdonochie, the son of Duncan.) With food processing plants on the Isle of Dogs (London), in Lowestoft (Suffolk), in Fraserburgh (Aberdeenshire, Scotland) and other places, the company was a wholesale provision merchant and manufacturer of pickles, potted meat and […]
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