‘to judge a book by its cover’: meaning and origin

17th Sep 2021.Reading time 10 minutes.

USA, 1837—to make assumptions about someone or something based on appearance or on superficial characteristics—the metaphor occurs in the preface to ‘Truth in Fiction: Or, Morality in Masquerade. A Collection of Two hundred twenty five Select Fables of Æsop, and other Authors’ (London, 1708), by Edmund Arwaker

‘box of ivories’, ‘kissing-trap’ and other slang expressions for the mouth

8th Sep 2021.Reading time 8 minutes.

The following slang expressions have been used to designate the mouth: ‘box of ivories’ (also ‘ivory-box’); ‘box of dominoes’ (also ‘domino-box’); ‘bone-box’; ‘potato-box’; ‘potato-jaw’; ‘potato-trap’; ‘kissing-trap’.

‘green thumb’: meaning and origin

3rd Sep 2021.Reading time 13 minutes.

British, 1907—denotes considerable talent or ability to grow plants—in this phrase, the adjective ‘green’ refers to the colour of growing vegetation—1921: ‘green-thumbed’ (adjective)

‘green fingers’: meaning and origin

2nd Sep 2021.Reading time 7 minutes.

British, 1906—denotes considerable talent or ability to grow plants—in this phrase, the adjective ‘green’ refers to the colour of growing vegetation—1914: ‘green-fingered’ (adjective)

‘home (away) from home’: meaning and origin

25th Aug 2021.Reading time 9 minutes.

a place where one is as happy, relaxed or comfortable as in one’s own home; especially a place providing homelike accommodation or amenities—UK, 1839, in advertisements for hotels

‘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

‘budgie smugglers’: meaning and origin

22nd Aug 2021.Reading time 6 minutes.

Australia, 1998—a pair of short, tight-fitting men’s swimming trunks—refers to the appearance of the male genitals in figure-hugging trunks—‘budgie’: colloquial abbreviation of ‘budgerigar’, denoting a small Australian parrot

‘can eat an apple through a picket fence’ and variants

21st Aug 2021.Reading time 10 minutes.

used of a buck-toothed person—USA, 1933, as ‘can eat an apple through a picket fence’—USA, 1950, as ‘can eat an apple through a tennis racquet’—UK, 1979, as ‘can eat an apple through a letter box’