‘hen’s milk’: meaning and origin
UK, 1793—a drink made from an egg yolk whisked into warm water, used as a remedy for colds—loan translation from French ‘lait de poule’ (1746)
Read MoreTag: food
‘piscinity’: meaning and origin
USA, 1859—humorous—the quality or condition of being a fish—from the prefix ‘pisci-’ (of, or relating to, fish) and the suffix ‘-ity’ (after the noun ‘humanity’)
Read More‘beer-can chicken’: meaning and origin
USA (Louisiana), 1996—a dish consisting of a chicken which has been cooked with an open can of beer wedged inside the cavity
Read More‘sglods’: meaning and origin
Welsh English, 1994—potato chips—alteration of the Welsh plural noun ‘sglodion’ (potato chips) with substitution of the English plural ending ‘‑s’ for the Welsh plural ending ‘‑ion’
Read Morean Australian use of the expression ‘sick canary’
has been used with reference to feebleness and ineffectualness since the late 19th century
Read More‘brown Windsor soup’: meaning and early occurrences
UK, 1919—a thick brown meat-based soup of a type now often depreciatively depicted as emblematic of traditional British cookery
Read More‘spud-cocky’: meaning and origin
Australia, 1911—a potato farmer—composed of ‘spud’ (a potato) and ‘cocky’ (a farmer working a small-scale farm)—‘cocky’: shortened form of ‘cockatoo’ (a farmer working a small-scale farm)
Read More‘old boiler’: meaning and origin
Australia, 1950—UK, 1962—derogatory and offensive: a middle-aged or elderly woman, especially one who is unattractive or unfeminine—refers to ‘boiler’, i.e., a tough old chicken for cooking by boiling
Read More‘grey death’: meaning and origin
Australian slang, 1960s—the unpalatable and unnutritious evening stew that used to be served to prison inmates—by extension: any unpalatable item of food
Read More‘sausage-wrapper’ (i.e., a newspaper)
colloquially used as a contemptuous appellation for a newspaper that the speaker regards as downmarket—Australia, 1880—but had occurred once (USA, 1874) as ‘bologna sausage wrapper’
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