‘kompromat’: meaning and origin

2nd Mar 2022.Reading time 8 minutes.

compromising information collected for use in blackmailing, discrediting or manipulating a person, group, etc.—borrowed from Russian (Soviet secret police) ‘kompromat’, from ‘kompro-’ in ‘komprometirujuščij’, meaning ‘compromising’, and ‘mat-’ in ‘material’, meaning ‘material’

‘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

‘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 the phrase “’arf a mo’, Kaiser!”

20th Dec 2019.Reading time 16 minutes.

“half a moment, Kaiser!”—1914 as the caption to a drawing by Bert Thomas, published in the Weekly Dispatch (London) to advertise a tobacco fund for soldiers

meaning and origin of ‘given away with a pound of tea’

17th Dec 2019.Reading time 8 minutes.

UK, 1881—used of something considered tawdry—from the grocers’ former practice of making a free gift with every pound of tea or with any fair-sized order

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

history of the phrase ‘(Lord) Kitchener wants you’

3rd Dec 2019.Reading time 8 minutes.

UK, 1914—from a poster showing Lord Kitchener, Secretary of State for War, used in the recruitment campaign at the beginning of World War One

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

the long history of the phrase ‘blood, sweat, and tears’

28th Mar 2019.Reading time 21 minutes.

current use seems to allude to a speech by Winston Churchill in May 1940—but the metaphor goes back to the early 17th century

meaning and origin of the phrase ‘to paper over the cracks’

14th Aug 2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

to use a temporary expedient—UK, 1889—origin attributed to Prussian statesman Bismarck in a letter written during the negotiations of the Convention of Gastein (1865)

word histories

Tag: Germany