meaning and origin of the term ‘éminence grise’
UK, 1877—a person who wields unofficial power and influence—originally applied to Père Joseph (François Leclerc du Tremblay), French friar, confidential agent of Cardinal Richelieu
Read MoreTag: Christianity
origin of ‘no-go area’: the Troubles in Northern Ireland
1969 as ‘No Go Land’, proper name of a Catholic ghetto in Belfast—1970 as ‘no-go area’, any Northern-Irish area to which entry was restricted or forbidden
Read Moremeaning and origin of ‘somebody is walking over my grave’
early 18th century, in Jonathan Swift’s ‘Polite Conversation’—from the folk belief that one shudders when somebody walks over the site of one’s future grave
Read Moremeanings and origin of the term ‘God’s acre’
churchyard—from German ‘Gottesacker’, literally ‘God’s field’—image of the bodies of the dead sown like seeds in order to bear fruit at the time of resurrection
Read Morehistory of the phrase ‘tin Jesus’
USA, 1874, as ‘a little tin Jesus on wheels’—in reference to tin as a base metal, ‘tin’ is used figuratively in the senses ‘petty’, ‘worthless’, ‘counterfeit’
Read Moremeanings and origin of the British-English phrase ‘to go west’
to die; to be lost or destroyed; to meet with disaster—1914, Army slang—probably from the notion of the setting sun symbolising disappearance or finality
Read Moreorigin of ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’
UK, 1892—postdates by several years variants such as ‘eat an apple on going to bed, and you will keep the doctor from earning his bread’
Read Moremeaning and origin of Scouse ‘Paddy’s Wigwam’
1968—Liverpool Roman Catholic cathedral—from the large number of Roman Catholics of Irish descent in Liverpool and the resemblance of the cathedral to a tepee
Read Morethe sexual meanings of ‘crumpet’ in British English
women regarded collectively as objects of sexual desire; sexual intercourse—first recorded in ‘The Gilt Kid’ (1936), by James Curtis (Geoffrey Basil Maiden)
Read MoreHow the British phrase ‘one’s finest hour’ arose in 1940.
the time of one’s greatest success—from the speech made on 18 June 1940 by P.M. Winston Churchill after the fall of France and before the Battle of Britain
Read More
word histories 