‘cradle Anglican’: meaning and origin
Canada, 1985—one who is born into the Anglican Church (i.e., an Anglican ‘from the cradle’)
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‘cradle Catholic’: meaning and origin
UK, 1930—one who is born into the Roman Catholic Church (i.e., a Catholic ‘from the cradle’)
Read More‘not worth a pudding’: meaning and early occurrences
1546—of little or no worth—here, ‘pudding’ refers to a sausage-like mass of seasoned minced meat, oatmeal, etc., stuffed into a prepared skin and boiled
Read MoreHow the French Revolution influenced the English phrase ‘feet of clay’
the earliest occurrences of ‘feet of clay’, used without explicit reference to the Bible, date from the French Revolution (1789-1799) and translate French ‘pieds d’argile’
Read More‘parson’s nose’: meaning and origin
the fatty extremity of the rump of a goose, fowl, etc.—so called from the resemblance of this fatty extremity to the human nose—UK, 1826—earlier synonym: ‘pope’s nose’ (UK, 1788)
Read Morenotes on the phrase ‘flogging parson’—as used in Britain and Australia
UK, 1828: an extremely severe clerical schoolmaster—Australia, 1885: any extremely severe magistrate, originally in reference to Parramatta magistrate Samuel Marsden (1765-1838)
Read More‘a fox in the henhouse’: meaning and early occurrences
a sly, treacherous or deceitful person, especially one who is secretly acting against the interests of the community or organisation to which he or she belongs—mid-19th century
Read More‘a fly on the wheel’: meaning and origin
a person who overestimates their own influence—1661—alludes to the fable of a fly sitting on the axletree of a moving chariot and saying, “See what a dust I raise”
Read More‘conchie’: meaning and origin
a conscientious objector—UK, 1916—from the initial syllable of the noun ‘conscientious objector’ and the suffix ‘-ie’, used to form familiar diminutives
Read More‘brain rot’: meaning and origin
a perceived loss of intelligence or critical thinking skills—apparently coined after ‘potato rot’ by the U.S. author Henry David Thoreau in Walden; Or, Life in the Woods (1854)
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