‘to drop — like a hot potato’: meaning and early occurrences
UK, 1815—to abandon a person or undertaking hastily, especially when they become controversial or difficult to handle, as a hot potato is
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‘prunes and prism(s)’: meaning and origin
a prim or affected facial expression or manner of speaking; affected mannerisms, superficial accomplishments—originally, in Little Dorrit (1857), by Charles Dickens, a phrase spoken aloud in order to form the lips into an attractive shape
Read More‘not to be just a pretty face’: meaning and early occurrences
to have qualities other than mere attractiveness, especially intelligence—UK, 1955—paradoxically, in early use, often employed in a sexist manner
Read More‘to extract the Michael’: meaning and origin
humorous—a polite variant of the informal phrase to ‘take the mickey out of’, meaning ‘to tease or ridicule’—UK, 1956
Read More‘(just) a pretty face’: original meaning and early occurrences
a woman who had no qualities other than attractiveness, with connotations of low intelligence, or of flightiness, or of low social status and poverty—second half of the 19th century, chiefly in stories by women writers
Read More‘excuse-me dance’: meaning and early occurrences
UK and Ireland—a dance in which one may supersede a partner—first recorded in 1923—but the expression ‘excuse-me waltz’ had occurred in 1922
Read More‘leather and prunella’: meaning and origin
something of no value, something to which one is utterly indifferent—UK, 1785—derives from a misinterpretation of “Worth makes the Man, and Want of it the Fellow;/The rest, is all but Leather or Prunella.” in An Essay on Man (1734), by Alexander Pope
Read More‘Absurdistan’: meanings and origin
a country characterised by absurdity—originally used of Czechoslovakia—the suffix ‘-istan’ (in country names such as ‘Pakistan’) is used as the second element in satirical names denoting, in particular, ‘a country characterised by [the first element]’
Read More‘bullycide’: meaning and origin
suicide committed by a person, especially a child or young adult, as a result of being bullied—blend of the nouns ‘bully’ and ‘suicide’—coined since 2001 on separate occasions by various persons, independently from one another
Read More‘granny-bashing’ | ‘granny-battering’: meanings and origin
UK, 1972—the nouns ‘granny-bashing’ and ‘granny-battering’ denote: a) the assault or mugging of elderly persons; b) abuse of an elderly member of one’s family, especially one’s grandmother
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