‘vee-dub’: meaning and origin
a Volkswagen car—USA, 1967—from the pronunciation of ‘VW’ (initialism from the name ‘Volkswagen’)—‘dub’: shortened form of the adjective ‘double’ in ‘double U’
Read MoreTag: Australia
‘eureka moment’: meaning and origin
a moment of sudden discovery, inspiration or insight—1918—from the reputed exclamation of Archimedes when he realised that the volume of a solid could be calculated by measuring the water displaced when it was immersed
Read More‘cut-lunch commando’: meaning and origin
Australia, 1943, derogatory—a soldier who does not see active service, especially a reservist—from ‘cut lunch’, denoting a packed lunch, typically consisting of sandwiches
Read More‘like a lily on a dustbin’: meanings and early occurrences
also ‘like a lily on a dirt-tin’ and variants—something or somebody that is incongruous or conspicuous—UK, 1934, but chiefly Australian (from 1948 onwards)
Read More‘to stir the possum’: meaning and origin
Australia, 1888—to stir up controversy; to liven things up—also ‘to rouse the possum’ (Australia, 1898)—this phrase probably developed as the obverse of ‘to play possum’
Read More‘to be packed like sardines’: meaning and origin
UK, 1841—to be crowded or confined tightly together, as sardines in a tin
Read More‘babyccino’: meanings and origin
a drink of frothy milk, designed as an alternative to coffee for young children—also: a small cup of cappuccino—Australia, 1995—from ‘baby’ and ‘‑ccino’ in ‘cappuccino’
Read More‘not on your nelly’: meaning and origin
‘not under any circumstances’—Royal Air Force slang, 1942—short for ‘not on your Nelly Duff’, i.e., ‘not on your life’, ‘Nelly Duff’ being rhyming slang for ‘puff’ as used colloquially in the sense of ‘life’
Read More‘like a rat up a drainpipe’: meanings and origin
very quickly; also, very energetically—Australia, 1881, as ‘like a rat up a pump’
Read More‘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
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