‘to box Harry’: meaning and origin
UK, 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 MoreTag: human body
‘to live (on) tally’: meaning and origin
to 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 More‘barmy in the crumpet’: meaning and origin
wrong in the head, crazy—British slang, 1882-83—the noun ‘crumpet’ designates the head, and the adjective ‘barmy’ means: crazy
Read More‘to leave one’s fingerprints all over something’: meaning and origin
Australia, 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
Read More‘air quotes’: meaning and origin
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 More‘goldfish’ (as used of intelligence and of memory)
USA 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 More‘bag of hammers’: meanings and origin
American 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 More‘stupid o’clock’: meaning and origin
UK, 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.
Read More‘glam-ma’: meaning and origin
USA, 2001—a glamorous grandmother, especially one who is relatively young or fashion-conscious—a blend of the nouns ‘glamour’ and ‘grandma’
Read More‘ankle express’: meaning and origin
one’s feet as a means of travel, humorously represented as a form of public transport—from 1887 onwards in the southeastern states of Georgia and Alabama
Read More
word histories 