meaning and origin of the phrase ‘betwixt and between’
‘betwixt and between’, late 18th century—not fully or properly either of two things, in an intermediate or middling position
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‘adultescent’ and its synonyms
blend of ‘adult’ and ‘adolescent’: adult who has retained the interests, behaviour or lifestyle of adolescence — origin USA, first attested in 1945
Read More‘beanfeast’, ‘beano’: meaning and origin
‘beano’, abbreviation of ‘beanfeast’: an enjoyable time; originally an annual dinner, given by employers to employees, or held by organisations or clubs
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘to set the Thames on fire’
from the image of an impossible task, ‘to set the Thames on fire’: to work wonders — typically used negatively in the ironic sense never to distinguish oneself
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘to go haywire’
From the practice of using hay-baling wire for makeshift repairs, ‘haywire’ came to mean crudely made, improvised, hence disorganised, erratic, crazy.
Read More‘Hamlet without the Prince’: meaning and origin
event taking place without the central figure—from an alleged performance of Hamlet in 1775 with the title role left out because the chief actor had fled
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘keep your hair on’
‘keep your hair on’ (British, late 19th century): perhaps from the image of pulling one’s hair out, or one’s wig off, in exasperation, anger or frustration
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘in a nutshell’
The phrase ‘in a nutshell’ originated in a story told by Pliny of a copy of Homer’s ‘Iliad’ supposedly small enough to be enclosed in the shell of a nut.
Read Moreorigin of ‘Boxing Day’ (the first weekday after Christmas Day)
from the verb ‘box’, ‘to give a Christmas-box’, i.e. to give a gratuity or present to tradespeople and employees—originally a box in which money was collected
Read Moremeaning and origin of the noun ‘moonraker’
moonraker: a native of Wiltshire; from the tale that some of them mistook the reflection of the moon in a pond for a cheese and tried to rake it out.
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