‘like a robber’s dog’: meanings and origin
Australia & UK—denotes physical ugliness; also used of temporary states such as tiredness, hangover, anger, etc. (Australia, 1946)—also denotes rapidity (Australia, 1947)
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‘loony left’: meaning and origin
a very radical, extreme or fanatical left-wing faction within a political party or the political spectrum—USA, 1945, as ‘loony leftists’
Read More‘rumpy-pumpy’: meaning and origin
sexual intercourse—Scotland, 1968—reduplication (with variation of the initial consonant and addition of the suffix ‘-y’) of the noun ‘rump’, denoting a person’s buttocks
Read More‘(as) full as a Bourke-Street tram’: meaning and origin
drunk—Australia, 1983—refers to Bourke Street, one of the main streets in the centre of Melbourne, Victoria—in Australian English, the adjective ‘full’ is used in various phrases referring to drunkenness
Read More‘not to know whether it’s Tuesday or Bourke Street’: meaning and origin
Australia, 1952—used of a state of confusion or stupidity—refers to Bourke Street, in Melbourne, Victoria
Read More‘back o’ Bourke’: meaning and origin
a remote and sparsely populated inland area of Australia—1896, in a poem by William Henry Ogilvie—refers to Bourke, the most remote town in north-western New South Wales
Read More‘blue funk’ (American usage)
a state of depression or despair—1893—a shift in meaning of the British-English expression ‘blue funk’, denoting a state of extreme nervousness or dread (the original meaning in American English)
Read More‘wheelie bin’: meaning and origin
UK, 1983—a large, rectangular dustbin with a hinged lid and wheels on two of the corners—bins on wheels were introduced into the United Kingdom in 1980 on the model of what was done in the Federal Republic of Germany
Read More‘glory box’: meaning and origin
a box in which a young woman stores clothes and household articles in preparation for her marriage—Australia, 1902—perhaps related to the British ‘glory hole’, denoting a place for storing odds and ends
Read More‘bottom drawer’: meaning and origin
a young woman’s collection of clothes and household articles, kept in preparation for her marriage—UK, 1835?—refers to the (notional?) receptacle where those clothes and household articles are supposed to be kept
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word histories 