“ad fontes!”
the strategy consisting in deliberately making a shocking announcement in order to divert attention from a difficulty in which one is embroiled—from the image of throwing a dead cat on the table—first defined in 2013 by Boris Johnson
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to rain very heavily—UK, 1820—sometimes appended to the phrase ‘to rain cats and dogs’
Read MoreUK, 1856—jocular extension of ‘to rain cats and dogs’ (i.e., ‘to rain very hard’)—puns on the verb ‘hail’ (i.e., ‘to pour down like hail’) and the verb ‘hail’ (i.e., ‘to call out (a cab)’)
Read Moreto vomit, especially from drunkenness—slang, obsolete—UK, 1785—perhaps alludes to the fact that cats are prone to vomit—cf. also the obsolete French verb ‘renarder’, to vomit, from the noun ‘renard’, denoting a fox
Read Moreto do or say something which causes trouble, controversy or upset—first occurs (1841 & 1843, Yorkshire, northern England) in quotation marks, which indicates that it was already in common usage
Read MoreUSA, 1966—a (13th-birthday) party held for a dog—a blend of ‘bark’ (the sharp explosive cry of a dog), and of ‘bar mitzvah’ (the coming-of-age ceremony for a 13-year-old Jewish boy), or ‘bat mitzvah’ (the equivalent ceremony for a Jewish girl)
Read MoreUK, 1985—to be ‘stale’, to be no longer innovative, relevant, or effective—refers to the practice introduced in Britain in the early 1970s of stamping perishable goods with the latest date by which they may be sold
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UK, 1997—the title given to the official resident cat of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at 10 Downing Street, London—‘mouser’, first recorded circa 1440, denotes an animal that catches mice
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used ironically of something regarded as prosaic or even thoroughly vulgar—USA, 1869—‘romance’: romantic love idealised for its purity or beauty
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USA, 1919—‘spare no expense’—also ‘go all out for it’, ‘hand victory on a platter’, ‘allow yourself more of what you want’ (South Africa)
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word histories 