‘like a rat up a drainpipe’: meanings and origin
very quickly; also, very energetically—Australia, 1881, as ‘like a rat up a pump’
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‘Jeeves-like’: meaning and origin
Canada, 1928—resembling Jeeves, the perfect valet in stories by the English author Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (1881-1975); this fictional character first appeared in 1915
Read More‘to do a vanishing act’: meanings and origin
late 19th century—to disappear suddenly without leaving information about one’s whereabouts—from conjuring, in which ‘vanishing act’ designates an act of making a person or thing disappear as if by magic, and an act of disappearing in this manner
Read More‘to stick out a mile’: meaning and origin
New Zealand, 1883, as ‘to stick out half a mile’—to be very prominent or conspicuous
Read More‘dillbrain’: meaning and origin
Australia, 1943—a foolish or silly person—from the synonymous noun ‘dill’ (1933), itself apparently a back-formation from the adjective ‘dilly’, meaning ‘foolish’, ‘silly’
Read More‘slanguist’: meanings and origin
USA, 1871: a person who frequently uses or coins slang words and phrases—USA, 1926: a person who studies the use and historical development of slang—blend of the nouns ‘slang’ and ‘linguist’
Read Morenotes on ‘ping-pong’ (parliamentary term)
UK Parliament, 1902: rapid verbal exchanges between two parties—Queensland Parliament, 1902: the to and fro of amendments to bills between two Houses of Parliament
Read More‘gentrification’: two meanings—and two origins
Australia, 1865 (nonce-use): the process of turning into a person of high social rank—UK, 1964 (coined by sociologist Ruth Glass): the process whereby middle-class people take up residence in a traditionally working-class area of a city
Read MoreBritish uses of ‘a box of frogs’
has been colloquially used to express a great variety of notions, in particular ugliness and madness, but also unpleasantness, unpredictableness, agitation, disturbance, etc.
Read More‘bring-your-own-bottle party’ | ‘bring-a-bottle party’
a party to which attendees are encouraged to bring their own drinks, especially alcohol—‘bring-your-own-bottle party’: USA, 1923, in the context of Prohibition—‘bring-a-bottle party’: UK, 1928
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word histories 