“ad fontes!”
dirty fingernails—1906—British and Irish English—but the comparison between the dirt edging the fingernails and the black border edging mourning paper dates back to the 19th century
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originally applied to someone’s absence—Australia, 1945—originated in 1940s advertisements for Gowings, showing scenes vacated in a hurry by those seeking bargains
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USA, 1944—was used when a cattle-owner let the autumn book tally stand all winter and sold out the herd on that basis, no matter how many head froze or got stolen over winter
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U.S. underworld phrase, 1931—The image is of a man whose hat is only a six-incher, but who needs a fifty-inch chest measurement in shirts.
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USA and Australia respectively—from a joke about robbers threatening to kiss every woman on the train/coach: when a gentleman asks them not to, a lady protests ‘who’s robbing this train/coach?’
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writing is more effective than military power or violence—UK, 1832—often erroneously ascribed to E. Bulwer-Lytton in ‘Richelieu; or, The Conspiracy’ (1839)
Read Morepersonifies the highest degree of disability or incompetence—Sydney, Australia, 1910s—variant, probably referring to a local individual, of the earlier synonymous phrase ‘blind man’
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U.S. slang, 2005—a gesture consisting in placing one hand on top of the other and wiggling the thumbs, made to reduce embarrassment
Read Moreany muddle-headed business—UK, 1813—the stupidity of the people of Coggeshall, a small town in Essex, England, has been proverbial since the mid-17th century
Read Moresaid to console a child choking over his or her food—UK, obsolete—first recorded in A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation (1738), by Jonathan Swift
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word histories 