more British uses of ‘Marmite’

30th Mar 2024.Reading time 9 minutes.

‘to spread [something or someone] like Marmite’ (1964)—‘like Marmite, a little goes a long way’ (1970)—Marmite is a savoury paste made from concentrated yeast and vegetable extract, used as a spread and for enriching soups and stews

a British use of ‘Marmite’ (divisiveness)

29th Mar 2024.Reading time 15 minutes.

1973—someone or something that polarises opinions by provoking either strongly positive or strongly negative reactions, rather than indifference—proprietary name for a savoury paste made from yeast and vegetable extract, which is either loved or hated

‘one man’s meat is another man’s poisson’: meanings and origin

17th Sep 2023.Reading time 12 minutes.

humorous variant of ‘one man’s meat is another man’s poison’—Australia, 1872—used in particular of the opposition between flesh-eating and fish-eating in relation to the religious observance of fasting

‘shrinkflation’: meaning and origin

9th Sep 2023.Reading time 10 minutes.

the practice of reducing a product’s amount or volume per unit while continuing to offer it at the same price—blend of ‘shrink’ and ‘inflation’—2014—apparently coined by Pippa Malmgren

‘to talk turkey’: original meaning, early occurrences (and origin?)

28th Jun 2023.Reading time 30 minutes.

USA, 1792—to say to a person the things that they want to hear—allegedly from the story of a white man and an Indian who went hunting together, and killed a turkey and a buzzard

‘to drive the porcelain bus’: meaning and origin

26th Jun 2023.Reading time 14 minutes.

to vomit from drunkenness—U.S. students’ slang, 1980—likens the position of the hands of a person holding onto the sides of a toilet bowl while vomiting therein, to that of a bus driver’s hands holding the steering wheel

‘fartichoke’: meaning and origin

23rd Jun 2023.Reading time 10 minutes.

the Jerusalem artichoke—UK, 1968—blend of ‘fart’ and ‘artichoke’ in ‘Jerusalem artichoke’—refers to the flatulence caused by eating Jerusalem artichokes

‘grass widower’: meaning and origin

3rd Jan 2023.Reading time 7 minutes.

a married man living apart from his wife—UK, 1822—coined after ‘grass widow’

‘Franken-’: meanings and origin

28th Dec 2022.Reading time 9 minutes.

forms nouns with the sense ‘genetically modified ——’; also, occasionally, with the sense ‘—— relating to genetic modification’—first used in 1992 by Paul Lewis to form ‘Frankenfood’—from ‘Frankenstein’, the title character of Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel

‘Frankenstein food’: meanings and origin

26th Dec 2022.Reading time 14 minutes.

genetically modified food—but had been used earlier by members of Weight Watchers in the sense of food one is addicted to—in reference to ‘Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus’ (1818), by Mary Shelley

word histories

Tag: food