the devotional origin of ‘lip service’
First recorded in 1590, the term ‘lip service’ originally referred to prayer as a mere formal practice, as a sort of mechanical physical exercise.
Read MoreTag: human body
‘proud as a louse’ and other linguistic notes on ‘Punchinello’
Several English and French words and phrases are ultimately derived the Latin noun ‘pullus’, meaning ‘young animal’, in particular ‘young fowl’.
Read MoreThe phrase ‘to pull one’s weight’ originated in rowing.
origin: a rower who does not pull the oar with a force appropriate to his or her weight fails to make the contribution expected by the rest of the crew
Read Morethe liturgical origin of ‘Quasimodo’
in full ‘Quasimodo Sunday’: the Sunday after Easter—from the opening words of the Latin introit for that day, ‘quasimodo geniti infantes’, ‘as newborn babies’
Read More‘to take the mickey out of someone’: meaning and origin
UK, 1891—‘to take the mickey (or ‘the mike’) out of’: ‘to tease or ridicule’—probably after ‘Mickey (or ‘Mike’) Bliss’, rhyming slang for ‘piss’
Read Moreearly instances of ‘butterfly kiss’
‘Butterfly kiss’ appeared in the second half of the 19th century to designate the act of lightly sweeping a person’s cheek with one’s eyelashes.
Read Morethe various uses of ‘out of one’s skull’
USA—‘not part of a particular exclusive group’, 1955—‘out of one’s mind’, 1958—‘smashed out of one’s skull’ (= ‘drunk’, 1963)—‘bored out of one’s skull’, 1967
Read Morethe uncertain biblical meaning of ‘by the skin of one’s teeth’
from Job, 19:20—this verse, and particularly the Hebrew verb form immediately preceding ‘bĕʿōr šinnāi’ (‘with the skin of my teeth’), are of uncertain meaning
Read Moremeaning and origin of ‘forty winks’
early 19th century—probably a jocular application of ‘forty’ as an indefinite term for a large number—‘wink’ in the sense of ‘a closing of the eyes for sleep’
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘to see a man about a dog’
UK, 1865—vague excuse for leaving to keep an undisclosed appointment, or, now frequently, to go to the toilet—perhaps originally with allusion to dogfighting
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