the British phrase ‘to talk the hind leg off a donkey’
1808, as ‘to talk a horse’s hind leg off’—‘[animal’s] hind leg off’ is probably a hyperbolic extension of ‘to talk’, emphasising the speaker’s persistence or eloquence
Read MoreTag: human body
adolescence: ‘the awkward age’ – ‘l’âge ingrat’
UK, 1832—‘the awkward age’: the adolescence, when one is no longer a child but not yet properly grown up, a time of life characterised by physical and emotional changes—translates in French as ‘l’âge ingrat’, ‘the thankless age’
Read Morean American phrase for a British trait: ‘a stiff upper lip’
‘a stiff upper lip’: a quality of uncomplaining stoicism—now understood as referring to what is believed to be a quintessentially British trait, the repression of emotion, but originated in fact in North America (USA, 1811)
Read More‘footloose and fancy-free’: meaning and origin
The phrase ‘footloose and fancy-free’ means ‘not committed or tied to anyone or anything’—it appeared in the 1860s only, in U.S. political contexts, although each of its elements dates from the 17th century.
Read More‘to play footsie with somebody’ – ‘faire du pied à quelqu’un’
USA, 1917 (with ‘footie’): to touch somebody’s foot lightly with one’s own foot, especially under a table, as a playful expression of romantic interest—hence also, figuratively: to have underhanded dealings with somebody
Read Morethe Shakespearean origin of ‘to flutter the dovecotes’
UK, 1831—to startle or upset a sedate or conventionally-minded community—most probably from the following lines in The Tragedy of Coriolanus (circa 1607), by William Shakespeare: “like an eagle in a dove-cote, I | Flutter’d your Volscians in Corioli”
Read Moreorigin of ‘to crawl out of the woodwork’
USA, 1930—‘to crawl, or to come, out of the woodwork’: of an unpleasant or unwelcome person or thing, to come out of hiding, to emerge from obscurity; the image is of vermin or insects crawling out of crevices or other hidden places in a building
Read Moreorigin of ‘decent’ (sufficiently clothed to see visitors)
USA, 1911—‘to be decent’: ‘to be sufficiently clothed to see visitors’; often as a coy or jocular enquiry ‘are you decent?’—originated in the question asked when knocking at the door of an actor’s or actress’s dressing room in a theatre
Read Moremeaning and earliest instances of ‘bums on seats’
UK, 1967—chiefly British—‘bums on seats’: the members of an audience, at a theatre, cinema or other place of entertainment, especially when viewed as a source of income
Read Morea hypothesis as to the origin of ‘brownie point’
first recorded in the Los Angeles Times (California) of 15 March 1951—possibly from ‘brownie’ in the sense of ‘a benevolent elf that supposedly haunts houses and does housework secretly’
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