“ad fontes!”
do not to discard winter clothes too soon—Britain, 1668—‘clout’: any piece of clothing—the original reference is to the end of the month of May and not to the appearance of spring blossom
Read MoreUK, 1802—to go without food, or have a meagre meal, in order to save money—perhaps from the verb ‘box’, meaning: to strike with the fist, and from the male forename ‘Harry’, designating the Devil
Read Moreto live in concubinage—slang, northwestern England, 1822—refers to the noun ‘tally’ in the sense of one of two parts which fit and complete each other
Read Morewrong in the head, crazy—British slang, 1882-83—the noun ‘crumpet’ designates the head, and the adjective ‘barmy’ means: crazy
Read MoreAustralia, 1914—to leave indisputable evidence of one’s involvement in an affair, endeavour, etc.—‘fingerprint’: an impression made on a surface by the tip of a person’s finger, as used in criminal investigations
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a notional set of quotation marks gestured by a speaker’s fingers in the air, to indicate that what is being said is ironic, mocking, etc.—USA, 1989
Read MoreUSA 1920: ‘to have the brains of a goldfish’ (to have limited intelligence)—USA, 1958: ‘to have the memory of a goldfish’ (to be unable to retain information or memories for any significant length of time)
Read MoreAmerican English, 1874—used in particular of stupidity, as in ‘dumb as a bag of hammers’ and variants—the underlying notion is probably that anything is dumb that does all the hard work
Read MoreUK, late 1980s—the adverb ‘o’clock’ is colloquially and humorously used with adjectives to denote an unreasonably, excessively or inconveniently early or late hour—as in ‘stupid o’clock’, ‘silly o’clock’, etc.
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USA, 2001—a glamorous grandmother, especially one who is relatively young or fashion-conscious—a blend of the nouns ‘glamour’ and ‘grandma’
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word histories 