‘chain-smoker’: meaning and origin
1885—a person who smokes continually, typically by lighting a cigarette from the stub of the last one smoked—loan translation from German ‘Kettenraucher’—originally referred to Otto von Bismarck
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‘Nacht und Nebel’: meanings and origin
the name of a decree issued in Nazi Germany in December 1941, under which individuals suspected of resistance or other underground activities were arrested and deported suddenly and without trace, frequently during the night—by extension: any situation, event, etc., characterised by mystery, obscurity or secrecy
Read Moremeaning and origin of ‘street angel (and) house devil’
USA, 1878—someone who behaves exemplarily in public, but who is abusive in private life—calque of German ‘Strass-Engel Haus-Teufel’
Read Morehistory of the phrase ‘c’est la guerre’ (‘it can’t be helped’)
UK and USA, World War One—borrowing from French, literally ‘it is war’—expresses acceptance of, or resignation at, the situation engendered by war
Read Morethe various figurative meanings of ‘dirty spoon’
UK, 1849: cheap dingy eatery, as a translation from German—USA, from 1862 onwards: brothel, squalid lodging-house, bar; 1897: cheap dingy eatery
Read More‘greasy spoon’: early instances; connexions with German
1850, in The Times of London, apparently as a translation from German—later instances (Minnesota, 1891-98) also associated with German to an extent or another
Read Moremeanings and origin of the term ‘God’s acre’
churchyard—from German ‘Gottesacker’, literally ‘God’s field’—image of the bodies of the dead sown like seeds in order to bear fruit at the time of resurrection
Read Moremeanings and origin of the phrases ‘dry/wet behind the ears’
USA, 1802 and 1851—translations from German—apparently from the idea that the area behind the ears is the last part to become dry after birth
Read Morelinguistic notes on the ‘one’ in ‘alone’ and ‘only’
Why is the element one in words such as alone and only not pronounced like the numeral one? Both the indefinite article an (a before consonant) and the numeral one are from Old English ān—which has survived in Scotland as ane, used both as indefinite article and as numeral. This Old-English word ān meant a/an, one, […]
Read Morethe German origin of the phrase ‘to throw the baby out with the bathwater’
mid-19th century—loan translation from German ‘das Kind mit dem Bade ausschütten’ (to empty out the child with the bath), early 16th century
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