‘to shoot the cat’: meaning (and origin?)

17th Jul 2022.Reading time 8 minutes.

to vomit, especially from drunkenness—slang, obsolete—UK, 1785—perhaps alludes to the fact that cats are prone to vomit—cf. also the obsolete French verb ‘renarder’, to vomit, from the noun ‘renard’, denoting a fox

‘charity dame’ | ‘charity moll’: meaning and origin

12th Jul 2022.Reading time 13 minutes.

Australia—‘charity dame’ 1949—‘charity moll’ 1962—an amateur prostitute who charges less than the usual rate—from ‘Moll’, pet form of the female forename ‘Mary’, the noun ‘moll’ has long been used to designate a prostitute

Australian terms referring to left-handedness

9th Jul 2022.Reading time 15 minutes.

left-handed: ‘molly-handed’, ‘mauldy’, ‘molly-dooked’—a left-handed person: ‘molly-hander’, ‘mauldy’, ‘molly-dook’—‘molly’ and ‘mauldy’ may derive from ‘mauley’, denoting the hand or fist; ‘dook’ is ‘duke’, denoting the hand or fist

‘to put a tiger in one’s tank’: meaning and origin

15th Jun 2022.Reading time 11 minutes.

to invest one with energy—USA, 1959 & 1960—used as an advertising slogan by both Oklahoma Oil Company and Humble Oil & Refining Company—this advertising slogan soon became a popular catchphrase

‘the big smoke’: meanings and origins

9th Jun 2022.Reading time 15 minutes.

Australian English, 1848: any urban area (said to be of Aboriginal origin)—Irish and British English, 1862: Dublin and London—alludes to smoke as characteristic of an urban area

‘to play a good knife and fork’: meaning and early occurrences

2nd Jun 2022.Reading time 7 minutes.

to eat heartily—first occurs in Augusta Triumphans: Or, The Way to make London the most flourishing City in the Universe (1728), by Daniel Defoe

‘to beat Banagher’: meaning and origin

25th May 2022.Reading time 11 minutes.

to surpass everything—Ireland, 1821—probably refers to a strong military fort at Banagher, a town in County Offaly, in the province of Leinster, Ireland

‘the clean potato’: meaning and origin

24th May 2022.Reading time 11 minutes.

the very, the real, or the proper person or thing—1830—of Scottish or Irish origin—perhaps an extended form of the synonymous phrase ‘the potato’

‘wood-and-water joey’: meaning and origin

9th May 2022.Reading time 17 minutes.

Australia, 1847—an odd-job man—‘wood-and-water’ alludes to the phrase ‘hewer of wood and drawer of water’, designating a labourer of the lowest kind—‘joey’ is perhaps the noun denoting a young kangaroo, and by extension anything young or small

‘Spam medal’: meaning and origin

11th Apr 2022.Reading time 7 minutes.

military slang, 1944—a medal awarded to all members of a force—especially the 1939-1945 Star, awarded to British service personnel who took part in WWII—refers to the ubiquitousness of Spam as a foodstuff

word histories

Tag: dictionaries