meaning of the phrase ‘awkward turtle’
U.S. slang, 2005—a gesture consisting in placing one hand on top of the other and wiggling the thumbs, made to reduce embarrassment
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a male-chauvinistic phrase: ‘barefoot(ed) and pregnant’
USA, 1938—male-chauvinistic phrase meaning that the place of women is in the home and that their role is to bear children—also ‘pregnant and barefoot(ed)’
Read More‘nice but dim’: meaning and early occurrences
a person regarded as good-natured but also not ‘bright’ intellectually—UK, 1981—Australia, 1982—USA, 1986
Read More‘plain vanilla’ | ‘vanilla sex’: early occurrences
from the popular perception of vanilla as the ordinary, bland flavour of ice-cream—USA—‘plain vanilla’ 1934—‘vanilla sex’ 1960
Read More‘Tom Mix in Cement’: meaning and origin
a retort to ‘what’s on at the pictures?’—USA, 1924—with pun on ‘to mix cement’, refers to U.S. film actor Tom Mix
Read More‘all one’s Christmases come at once’: early occurrences
one is experiencing remarkably good fortune; one has everything one could have wished or hoped for—Australia, 1932
Read More‘men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses’
USA—from two-line poem ‘News Item’ (1926), by Dorothy Parker—has given rise to jocular variants, especially playing on ‘glasses’ (eyewear/drinking containers)
Read More‘refreshes the parts other — cannot reach’
UK, 1976—from “Heineken. Refreshes the parts other beers cannot reach”, an advertising slogan for Heineken lager, in use from 1975 onwards
Read Moremeaning and origin of ‘it’s all part of life’s rich pattern’
an ironically resigned, yet far from submissive, reflection upon the vicissitudes of life—UK, 1937 in The Games Mistress, a monologue by Arthur Marshall
Read Moreoccurrences of ‘the full monty’ from 1989 to 1994
used to mean ‘everything which is necessary, appropriate or possible’, sometimes with punning reference to the British comedy group ‘Monty Python’
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