meaning and early instances of ‘full English breakfast’
UK, 1933—a substantial breakfast including hot cooked foods such as bacon, sausages, eggs and baked beans
Read MoreTag: drinks
the various figurative meanings of ‘dirty spoon’
UK, 1849: cheap dingy eatery, as a translation from German—USA, from 1862 onwards: brothel, squalid lodging-house, bar; 1897: cheap dingy eatery
Read More‘greasy spoon’: early instances; connexions with German
1850, in The Times of London, apparently as a translation from German—later instances (Minnesota, 1891-98) also associated with German to an extent or another
Read More‘cheese-eating/tea-drinking surrender monkeys’
‘cheese-eating surrender monkeys’: the French people (USA, 1995) from The Simpsons—‘tea-drinking surrender monkeys’: the British people (Ireland, 2004)
Read More‘ploughman’s lunch’: meaning and origin
1957—coined as a marketing term by the Cheese Bureau, an organisation formed to promote the sales of cheese, when it began encouraging pubs to serve this meal
Read Moremeaning and possible origin of ‘to push the boat out’
UK, 1915—to be lavish in one’s celebrations or spending—Army and Navy slang: to buy a round of drinks—’a boat’ might be metaphorical for ‘a glass’ (i.e., ‘a drink’)
Read Moremeaning, origin and early instances of ‘to lie doggo’
UK, 1882—to remain motionless and quiet; to keep a low profile—probably from ‘dog’ and suffix ‘-o’, with allusion to the characteristically light sleep of a dog
Read Morea hypothesis as to the origin of ‘to get down to brass tacks’
USA, 1868—‘brass tacks’: the nails studded over a coffin, hence figuratively the end of any possibility of deceit, the return to essentials
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘the tail wags the dog’
USA, 1870—an unimportant or subsidiary factor, person or thing dominates the situation—based on the image of the inversion of the natural order
Read Moremeanings and origin of the phrase ‘visiting fireman’
USA, 1909—a person given especially cordial treatment while visiting an organisation or place; a tourist expected to spend freely
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