origin of ‘bee’ (social gathering for a specific purpose)
USA, late 18th century—perhaps a folk-etymological alteration of British dialectal variants of ‘boon’, meaning ‘help given by neighbours’
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original meaning and sense development of ‘wild-goose chase’
originally a kind of horse chase in which the second horse had to follow the course of the leader, like a flight of wild geese
Read Moreorigin of ‘steeplechase’: a horse race with a steeple as goal
UK, 1793—a horse race across a stretch of open countryside, with a church steeple in view as goal
Read More‘(just) what the doctor ordered’ (exactly what is needed)
‘(just) what the doctor ordered’: very beneficial or desirable under the circumstances—origin: USA, second half of the 19th century
Read Moreorigin of ‘to bell the cat’ (to undertake a very dangerous mission)
ultimately based on the fable of the mice, or rats, who proposed to hang a bell round the cat’s neck, so as to be warned of its approach
Read Morepejorative origin of ‘Nimby’ (opposition to a project in one’s vicinity)
USA, 1979—acronym from ‘not in my back yard’—first used in ‘the Nimby syndrome’ with reference to the disposal of nuclear waste
Read MoreHow ‘to call a spade a spade’ originated in a mistranslation.
originated in the mistranslation by Erasmus of Greek ‘skáphē’ (meaning anything hollowed out) as a word denoting a digging tool
Read MoreHow a cartoon popularised ‘to drop the pilot’.
John Tenniel popularised the phrase in a cartoon depicting the dismissal of Otto von Bismarck, published in Punch (London) of 29 March 1890.
Read Moreorigin of ‘Bananaland’, colloquial Australian name for Queensland
Australia, 1880—from the fact that bananas grow in abundance in Queensland (a state comprising the north-eastern part of Australia)
Read More‘a legend in one’s lifetime’ – ‘a legend in one’s lunchtime’
UK—‘a legend in your lifetime’ (1913): allegedly said by Benjamin Jowett to Florence Nightingale—‘a legend in his own lunchtime’ (1969): first recorded in a theatrical review by John Cunningham
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