“ad fontes!”
According to superstition, if on waking on the first morning of a month one mutters to oneself ‘(white) rabbit(s)’ three times before speaking to anyone, then one will have good luck during the whole month.
Read MoreUK, 1862—originally said to children in order that they develop an upright posture—came to be humorously used when declining a proffered seat
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UK 1934 – USA 1935—alludes to a sardonic song by Cole Porter, about the lynching of an upper-class woman after she murders her unfaithful lover
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UK, 1851—a disappointing end to an otherwise exciting display—refers to the cleaning-up, especially of horse-dung, necessary after the Lord Mayor’s Show, in London
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great vitality, enthusiasm and liveliness—UK, 1922—originally (from 1921 onwards) used in the advertisements for Kruschen Salts
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one is experiencing remarkably good fortune; one has everything one could have wished or hoped for—Australia, 1932
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1) a seemingly devout or respectable person who lacks virtue—2) (with a pun on ‘holey’, i.e., full of holes) jocularly applied to holey things such as clothes
Read MoreUSA, 1984—used to indicate that something is blatantly obvious—humorously from ‘Is the Pope Catholic?’ and ‘Does a bear shit in the woods?’
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1927—a mystery man The Westminster Gazette’s readers were challenged to identify in order to claim prize money—‘Lobby Lud’: the Gazette’s telegraphic address
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20th century—originally a precautionary stipulation in announcements of events such as church fêtes—hence used humorously of any forthcoming event
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word histories 