‘bundle of nerves’: meaning and origin
someone who is extremely nervous, worried or tense—UK, 1832—originally (18th century) in physiology: a set of nervous fibres bound closely together
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‘a frog in one’s throat’: meaning and origin
USA, 1808—an irritation in the throat suggestive of an obstruction, producing a temporary croakiness or hoarseness—occasionally associated with the French, probably because ‘frog’ is derogatorily applied to them
Read More‘to do a vanishing act’: meanings and origin
late 19th century—to disappear suddenly without leaving information about one’s whereabouts—from conjuring, in which ‘vanishing act’ designates an act of making a person or thing disappear as if by magic, and an act of disappearing in this manner
Read More‘one might hear a pin drop’ | ‘one can hear a pin drop’
‘one might hear a pin drop’ (UK, 1739): the silence and sense of expectation are intense—‘one can hear a pin drop’ (UK, 1737): one has a keen sense of hearing
Read More‘Deirdre spectacles’: meaning and origin
UK, 1981—a pair of spectacles with an oversized frame of a style that was fashionable in the 1980s—refers to the spectacles worn by Deirdre Barlow, a fictional character in the soap opera Coronation Street
Read More‘turista’: meaning and origin
USA, 1956—diarrhoea suffered by travellers, originally and especially in Mexico—borrowed from Spanish ‘turista’, translating as ‘tourist’
Read More‘pig in the middle’: meanings and origin
UK—a ball game for three players, in which the middle player tries to intercept the ball as it passes between the other two—hence: a person, party, etc., caught between others in a conflict, dispute, etc.
Read More‘usherette’: meanings and origin
USA, 1906: a female attendant who shows people to their seats in a church—USA, 1907: a female usher at Oscar Hammerstein’s Manhattan Opera House—from ‘usher’ and the suffix ‘-ette’, forming nouns denoting women or girls linked with, or carrying out a role indicated by, the first element
Read More‘munitionette’: meaning and origin
UK, 1915—a female worker in a munitions factory, especially during the First World War (1914-18)—from ‘munition’ and the suffix ‘-ette’, denoting women or girls linked with, or carrying out a role indicated by, the first element
Read More‘bathtub ring’: meaning and origin
also ‘ring (a)round the bath(tub)’—USA, 1914—a dirty water-level mark left on the inside of a bathtub after it has been drained, caused by a combination of hard water and a build-up of soap scum, oils from bath products, etc.
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