“ad fontes!”
alludes to the menus in Chinese restaurants, which list the dishes in two columns, column A and column B—USA, 1956—first in reference to comedian Buddy Hackett’s routine on a Chinese waiter taking an order
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addition to proverb ‘God helps those who help themselves’—USA, UK and Australia, late 19th century—originated as a warning to shoplifters
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UK, 1879—meanings: an undisciplined assault on food and drink, and, by extension, any disorderly but excited scene
Read More1928—addressed to someone who looks glum—‘scone’ (originally Scots, early 16th century) denotes a light plain doughy cake
Read Moresaid to console a child choking over his or her food—UK, obsolete—first recorded in A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation (1738), by Jonathan Swift
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from the popular perception of vanilla as the ordinary, bland flavour of ice-cream—USA—‘plain vanilla’ 1934—‘vanilla sex’ 1960
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USA, 1887—of a child: to go to bed—‘Lilywhite’ refers to the whiteness of the bedsheets—from ‘lily-white’, meaning ‘white as a lily’, hence ‘of a pure white’
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Newfoundland, 1958—used of someone or something that is unreliable—refers to the fact that a squid moves backwards and forwards
Read MoreUK, 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
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USA, 1829—expresses picturesquely the supposed law of nature according to which, for any given situation, the worst of possible outcomes will inevitably occur
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word histories 