‘bread-artist’: meaning and origin

16th Sep 2021.Reading time 17 minutes.

an artist or writer who produces what is considered to be inferior work simply to earn a living—loan translation from German ‘Brotkünstler’—first used in 1827 by Scottish historian and political philosopher Thomas Carlyle in a text about German literature

‘iron maiden’: meaning and origin

23rd Aug 2021.Reading time 24 minutes.

1757, as a loan translation of German ‘Eiserne Jungfer’ (German text published in 1740)—1837, as a loan translation of German ‘Eiserne Jungfrau’—an instrument of torture, supposedly used during the Middle Ages, consisting of an upright coffin-shaped box lined with iron spikes, into which the victim is shut

‘chain-smoker’: meaning and origin

2nd Mar 2021.Reading time 5 minutes.

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

‘Nacht und Nebel’: meanings and origin

9th Dec 2020.Reading time 8 minutes.

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

meaning and origin of ‘street angel (and) house devil’

19th Feb 2020.Reading time 6 minutes.

USA, 1878—someone who behaves exemplarily in public, but who is abusive in private life—calque of German ‘Strass-Engel Haus-Teufel’

history of the phrase ‘c’est la guerre’ (‘it can’t be helped’)

5th Dec 2019.Reading time 17 minutes.

UK and USA, World War One—borrowing from French, literally ‘it is war’—expresses acceptance of, or resignation at, the situation engendered by war

the various figurative meanings of ‘dirty spoon’

13th Jun 2019.Reading time 19 minutes.

UK, 1849: cheap dingy eatery, as a translation from German—USA, from 1862 onwards: brothel, squalid lodging-house, bar; 1897: cheap dingy eatery

‘greasy spoon’: early instances; connexions with German

11th Jun 2019.Reading time 18 minutes.

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

meanings and origin of the term ‘God’s acre’

5th Jun 2019.Reading time 11 minutes.

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