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word histories

how words and phrases came into existence

Tag: Christianity

history of the phrase ‘c’est la guerre’ (‘it can’t be helped’)

5th December 2019.Reading time 18 minutes.

UK and USA, World War One—borrowing from French, literally ‘it is war’—expresses acceptance of, or resignation at, the situation engendered by war

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meanings of the British phrase ‘vicarage tea-party’

9th November 2019.Reading time 11 minutes.

20th century—denotes something mild, innocuous or uneventful—but those notions have been associated with vicarage tea-parties since the 19th century

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notes on the British phrase ‘if wet, in the vicarage’

7th November 2019.Reading time 7 minutes.

20th century—originally a precautionary stipulation in announcements of events such as church fêtes—hence used humorously of any forthcoming event

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meaning and origin of the phrase ‘Punch’s advice—don’t’

5th November 2019.Reading time 14 minutes.

from “advice to persons about to marry—don’t”, published in ‘Punch’s Almanack for 1845’ (24 December 1844) by the magazine ‘Punch, or the London Charivari’

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meaning and history of ‘to write to The Times about it’

21st October 2019.Reading time 10 minutes.

UK, 1851—is or jokingly denotes a threat made by a member of the public to write to the London newspaper The Times to express outrage about a particular issue

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history of the phrase ‘(all) dressed (up) like a Christmas tree’

7th October 2019.Reading time 20 minutes.

Britain and USA, early 1900s: over-elaborately dressed—since the mid-19th century, ‘like a Christmas tree’: overelaborateness, heterogeneousness, artificiality

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the birth of an American phrase: ‘Where’s the beef?’

6th October 2019.Reading time 13 minutes.

January 1984—from a television advertisement for the hamburger chain Wendy’s, in which an elderly lady demands where the beef is in a huge hamburger bun

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early history of the phrase ‘the dog ate my homework’

2nd October 2019.Reading time 11 minutes.

far-fetched excuse for failing to hand in school homework—1st recorded UK 1929 but had already long been in usage at that time—dog eating a sermon UK 1894

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meanings of the Irish-English phrase ‘like snuff at a wake’

26th September 2019.Reading time 15 minutes.

1844—various senses, especially ‘hither and thither’ and ‘lavishly’—from the custom of sharing snuff during a vigil held beside the body of someone who has died

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meanings and origin of ‘bell, book, and candle’

6th September 2019.Reading time 18 minutes.

14th century—a form of excommunication from the Catholic Church—by extension any process of condemnation carried out thoroughly

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