‘the books won’t freeze’: meaning and purported origin
USA, 1944—was used when a cattle-owner let the autumn book tally stand all winter and sold out the herd on that basis, no matter how many head froze or got stolen over winter
Read MoreTag: economics
‘to charge like the Light Brigade’: origin and various meanings
alludes to a British cavalry charge in 1854 during the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War—the phrase has had a variety of meanings, depending on the acceptation in which ‘charge’ has been used
Read More‘bang went sixpence’: origin and early occurrences
UK, 1870—based on the stereotype of Scots being miserly—from the story of the Scotsman who complained that he had to spend, in London, the small sum of sixpence
Read Moremeanings of ‘to give the cat another goldfish’
USA, 1919—‘spare no expense’—also ‘go all out for it’, ‘hand victory on a platter’, ‘allow yourself more of what you want’ (South Africa)
Read More‘a handsome husband and a thousand a year’
UK, 1907—the ideal of an unmarried woman—the phrase was especially used when offering to an unmarried woman the last cake or piece of bread from a plate
Read More‘refreshes the parts other — cannot reach’
UK, 1976—from “Heineken. Refreshes the parts other beers cannot reach”, an advertising slogan for Heineken lager, in use from 1975 onwards
Read Morenotes on ‘all fur coats and no knickers’
UK, 1963—ostentatious vulgarity in social life—from the literal sense of a fashionably dressed woman whose appearance covers vulgarity
Read More‘quoth the raven’: beware of these lodgings
UK, 1899—warning that touring actors wrote in the visitors’ books of low-quality lodgings—alludes to ‘Quoth the raven, “Nevermore.”’ in Edgar Poe’s ‘The Raven’
Read Morehistory of ‘— is just one damned thing after another’
USA, 1909—first with grammatical subject ‘life’, meaning ‘life consists of a succession of unpleasant or unlucky events’—then with other grammatical subjects
Read More‘let the moths out of your purse’: meaning and origin
don’t be so niggardly with your money—USA, 1935—the image is of moths that are living in a purse or wallet because it is not frequently opened
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word histories 