‘cradle Catholic’: meaning and origin
UK, 1930—one who is born into the Roman Catholic Church (i.e., a Catholic ‘from the cradle’)
Read MoreTag: Australia
‘donkey’s breakfast’: meanings and origin
UK, 1866, sailors’ slang: a straw mattress—Australia, 1884: a straw hat—in reference to donkeys’ diet
Read More‘to put on a bit of pudding’: meaning and origin
Australia, 1957—to gain weight around one’s middle
Read More‘goofy foot’: meaning and origin
one who rides a surfboard with the right foot forward instead of the left—USA, 1960 (as a verb)—here, ‘goofy’ seems to be related to prejudice against left-handedness and left-footedness
Read More‘kangaroo-ship’: meaning and origin
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 More‘heifer-dust’: meaning, origin and early occurrences
nonsense, 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 MoreAustralian uses of ‘two-bob watch’
1910: a cheap and common watch—hence (from 1922 onwards) used in various phrases referring to silliness, reliability/unreliability, erraticism, cheapness, funniness
Read MoreAustralian uses of ‘heifer-paddock’
literally (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 More‘hell, west and crooked’: meaning and origin
USA, 1867—all over the place, in disarray—perhaps originally used by cattlemen of mobs of cattle all over the place
Read More‘fang’—as used in reference to high speed
Australia, 1970—as a noun and as a verb, refers to a high-speed drive in a motor vehicle—from the surname of the Argentinian motor-racing driver Juan Manuel Fangio
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