“ad fontes!”
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 More
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
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
Read MoreAustralia, 1986—used as an assurance that all is fine, or to express one’s agreement or acquiescence—euphemistic alteration, with switching of the initial consonants, of ‘no fucking worries’
Read MoreIreland, 1832—particularly associated with Lord Robert Armstrong and the ‘Spycatcher’ trial (1986)—‘economy of truth’ was used in 1796 by Edmund Burke
Read MoreUK, 1894—a love-relationship in which one member of a married couple is involved with a third party—loan translation from French ‘triangle éternel’, coined by Alexandre Dumas fils in L’Homme-Femme (1872), a pamphlet about a wronged husband’s right to take the life of his adulterous wife
Read MoreNew Zealand (1890) & Australia (1891)—to terrify somebody—probably modelled on the earlier phrase ‘to knock seven bells out of somebody’ (‘to give a severe beating to somebody’)
Read MoreIreland, 1891—used in negative contexts to denote rejection, especially in ‘not for all the tea in China’, meaning ‘not in any circumstances’—refers to China as a major producer of tea, and to tea as a commodity of great value
Read More1894—in Australian English, the noun ‘bandicoot’, which designates an insectivorous marsupial native to Australia, has been used in numerous similes denoting deprivation or desolation
Read MoreAustralia, 1976—used by Aborigines to depreciatively designate unemployment or welfare benefits—‘sit-down’ means: performed or obtained while sitting down, with the implication that no or few efforts are required
Read More
