“ad fontes!”
letter of thanks for hospitality: ‘bread-and-butter letter’ (USA, late 19th century) – ‘Collins’ (UK, early 20th century, from the name of William Collins in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice)
Read MoreThe image of one’s bread getting or being buttered has long been used to denote getting or having benefits, advantages.
Read MoreAfter ready-sliced bread was introduced, improvements in the baking industry were assessed by comparison with it—hence the figurative use of ‘since sliced bread’
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originally (late 19th century) the queue of needy men waiting to be given bread outside Fleischmann’s Vienna Model Bakery, Broadway, New York City
Read More‘crumbs from a rich man’s table’—late 18th century—from the parable of the rich man and Lazarus in the gospel of Luke, 16:19-31
Read More‘(just) what the doctor ordered’: very beneficial or desirable under the circumstances—origin: USA, second half of the 19th century
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used in reference to a grovelling or obsequious appeal for financial help (1903)—originally a bowl carried by a Buddhist monk to receive food (1878)
Read MoreAustralia, 1880—from the fact that bananas grow in abundance in Queensland (a state comprising the north-eastern part of Australia)
Read Morea Latin-American country that is politically unstable because its economy, controlled by U.S. capital, wholly depends on the export of bananas
Read Morefirst recorded in The Biglow Papers (1848), by American author James Russell Lowell—based on the notion of leaving one’s hat behind in a rush of impetuosity
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word histories 