“ad fontes!”
Australian soldiers’ slang, 1917—literally: to fall heavily; figuratively: to suffer a failure or defeat—‘gutser’ (Scotland, 1901): originally denoted a belly flop—derived from ‘gut’ in the sense of the belly
Read More1922—‘like death warmed up’ (also ‘like death warmed over’): extended form of ‘like death’, attested in the mid-17th century and meaning ‘extremely ill’, or ‘exhausted’
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American English—1902: bare feet (used of Doukhobors, i.e., members of a Christian sect that originated in Russia, many members of which emigrated to Canada in the late 19th and early 20th centuries)—1965: open-toed leather sandals of a simple or functional style (used of young persons)
Read MoreUK, 1826—The colloquial phrase ‘couldn’t stop a pig (in a gate)’, and variants, are used of a bow-legged person.
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British-Army slang, 1972: a suit of protective clothing for use in nuclear, biological or chemical attacks—by extension: a suit of protective clothing for use by agricultural employees working with chemical sprays—perhaps refers to ‘Noddy’, a character in the writings of Enid Blyton
Read MoreIndia, 1958—euphemistic appellation for verbal or physical sexual harassment of a woman by a man in a public place—refers to Eve, the first woman in the biblical account of the creation of the world, who is seen as a temptress
Read MoreUSA, 1966—a restaurant that features scantily-clad waitresses—especially associated with the restaurant chain Hooters—also: a woman who breastfeeds, or the breast of a woman who breastfeeds
Read MoreUSA, 1975—especially used of a firm—to divulge information or secrets—based on the notion of opening one’s kimono and revealing one’s naked body
Read MoreAustralia, 1996—a day spent in bed in order to restore one’s spirits; an unscheduled extra day’s leave from work, taken to alleviate stress or pressure and sanctioned by one’s employer—from ‘Doona’, a proprietary name for an eiderdown or duvet, hence a generic term for any eiderdown or duvet
Read MoreUK, 1978—(soccer players) a confrontation that does not lead to serious fighting—based on the cliché ‘pistols at ten paces’—the substitution of ‘pistols’ with ‘handbags’, which evokes women fighting with their handbags, expresses the histrionic character of the confrontation
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word histories 