‘Popemobile’: original meaning
USA, 1969—the 1964 Lincoln Continental specially built and equipped for Pope Paul VI’s 1965 visit to the United States
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‘one man’s meat is another man’s poisson’: meanings and origin
humorous variant of ‘one man’s meat is another man’s poison’—Australia, 1872—used in particular of the opposition between flesh-eating and fish-eating in relation to the religious observance of fasting
Read More‘the university of life’: meaning and early occurrences
USA, 1854—the experience of life regarded as a means of instruction, in contrast to formal (higher) education—now often used with the implication that life experience is of greater benefit than formal education
Read More‘light at the end of the tunnel’: meaning and origin
a long-awaited sign that a period of hardship or adversity is nearing an end—UK, 1862—the image is of a railway tunnel, and the phrase has been used literally
Read More‘to drop one’s aitches’: meaning and early occurrences
also ‘to drop one’s h’s’—not to pronounce the letter h at the beginning of words in which it is pronounced in standard English—1855—1847 as ‘not to sound one’s h’s’
Read More‘Gallic shrug’: meaning and origin
a gesture (made by a French person to deny responsibility, knowledge or agreement) consisting typically in shrugging one’s shoulders while upturning one’s hands
Read More‘that makes two of us’: meaning and origin
used conversationally to declare, often ironically, that one shares the opinion, sentiment, predicament, etc., of the previous speaker—USA, early 20th century
Read More‘to swear like a trooper’: meaning and origin
to use a lot of swearwords—first used in 1713 by Joseph Addison—alludes to the fact that troopers (i.e., soldiers of low rank in the cavalry) had a reputation for coarse language and behaviour
Read More‘town and gown’: meaning and origin
1750—the non-academic inhabitants (‘town’) of a university city and the resident members of the university (‘gown’, denoting the distinctive costume of a member of a university)
Read More‘to rush in where angels fear to tread’: meaning and origin
to embark enthusiastically on a course of action that most sensible people would avoid—coined as ‘fools rush in where angels fear to tread’ by the English poet Alexander Pope in An Essay on Criticism (1711)
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