meanings and early instances of ‘alive and kicking’
UK, 1807—(of someone) active and in good health—(of something) prevalent and very active
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the coinage of an Irish political term: ‘whataboutery’
1974—coined by the Irish journalist John Healy with reference to the Troubles in Northern Ireland
Read Moreorigin and sense development of Anglo-Irish ‘bejesus’
1825, Anglo-Irish alteration of ‘by Jesus’—1867 as one word—‘the bejesus out of’ (1931) intensifies the action conveyed by the preceding verb
Read Moremeaning and origin of the proverb ‘quot homines tot sententiæ’
from Phormio, by the Roman dramatist Terence—appeared in English in the 1539 translation of Erasmus’s adages
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘tall poppy’
UK, 1816—successful person attracting envious hostility—from Tarquin’s decapitation of the tallest poppies to indicate the fate of enemies
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘dirty work at the crossroads’
UK, 1906—dishonest or illicit dealings—probably alludes to crossroads as settings for sinister actions, in particular to their former use as burial places for suicides
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘to get one’s knickers in a twist’
(jocular) to become unduly agitated or angry—twisted clothing as a metaphor for mental confusion—UK, 1971, in the comic strip Andy Capp
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘away with the fairies’
Irish English, 1907—out of touch with reality—ultimately refers to the belief that the fairies spirit away human beings
Read Moremeaning and early instances of ‘as the bishop said to the actress’
UK, 1930—‘as the bishop said to the actress’, ‘as the actress said to the bishop’: mischievously implies a sexual innuendo or ambiguity in a preceding innocent remark
Read Moreorigin and meanings of ‘dreaming spires’
the city or university of Oxford; the sheltered condition of unworldly academics—from the poem ‘Thyrsis’ (1866), by Matthew Arnold
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