origin of ‘tired and emotional’ (jocular euphemism for ‘drunk’)
coined as ‘tired and overwrought’ in ‘Private Eye’ (London) of 29 September 1967 about British Labour politician George Brown (1914-85)
Read MoreTag: drinks
the Bloody Mary before the name existed
Unnamed cocktails consisting of vodka and tomato juice became fashionable in the 1930s before the name ‘Bloody Mary’ was coined in November 1939.
Read Moreorigin of ‘hatchet man’: a hired Chinese assassin
USA—‘hatchet man’ (1874): a hired Chinese assassin using a hatchet or cleaver—‘hatchet work’ (1895): a murder carried out by a hatchet man
Read More‘Uncle Tom Cobley and all’: meaning and origin
meaning: everybody imaginable—UK, 1898 in extended form, 1899 in current form—alludes to the names listed in the Devon ballad ‘Widdecombe Fair’
Read Morethe phrase ‘a snowball’s chance (in hell)’
‘a snowball’s chance in hell’: no chance at all (USA, 1880)—elliptically, ‘a snowball’s chance’ (USA, 1895)—in the 1880s, ‘a snowball in hell’ was also used as a term of comparison to denote something that disappears rapidly
Read Morethe authentic—and simple—origin of ‘sleep tight’
In the phrase ‘sleep tight’ (USA, 1873), the adjective ‘tight’ is used as an adverb meaning ‘soundly’, i.e. ‘deeply and without disturbance’, as in the combination ‘tight asleep’ (USA, 1847).
Read Morethe various meanings of ‘green man’
three meanings: 1/ in outdoor pageants: a man dressed in greenery, representing a wild man of the woods—2/ in inn names and signs: a forester—3/ in medieval English churches: a representation of a man’s face composed of, surrounded by, or sprouting foliage or branches
Read More‘Dutch uncle’ (who gives firm but benevolent advice)
USA, Boston Morning Post, 26 May 1834—‘Dutch uncle’: a person giving firm but benevolent advice—unknown origin—perhaps an allusion to Calvinistic sternness
Read Moreorigin of ‘to crawl out of the woodwork’
USA, 1930—‘to crawl, or to come, out of the woodwork’: of an unpleasant or unwelcome person or thing, to come out of hiding, to emerge from obscurity; the image is of vermin or insects crawling out of crevices or other hidden places in a building
Read Moreorigin of ‘Dutch treat’ and ‘to go Dutch’
USA—‘to go Dutch’ (1907): to have every participant pay their own expenses, or share expenses equally—via ‘to go Dutch treat’ (1887), from ‘Dutch treat’ (1873): a meal, etc., at which each participant pays their share of the expenses—from a German practice
Read More
word histories 