‘beer and skittles’: meaning and origin
UK, 1831—In ‘beer and skittles’, denoting unmixed enjoyment, the image is of a person drinking beer while playing skittles.
Read MoreTag: drinks
origin of the phrase ‘three sheets in the wind’ (drunk)
comparison between a drunken person and a ship careering because the sheets (ropes controlling the sets of the sails) are hanging freely
Read Moreorigin of the Irish-English phrase ‘up the pole’ (‘pregnant’)
probably refers to pregnancy as an awkward condition, the image being apparently of an uncomfortable position at the top of a pole
Read MoreWho invented—and named—the Bloody Mary?
It seems that the American comedian George Jessel (1898-1981) invented the Bloody Mary and named it after Mary Brown Warburton (1896-1937).
Read Moreorigin 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 Morethe 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).
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