‘pound-noteish’: meaning and origin

15th May 2022.Reading time 9 minutes.

UK, 1927—affected, pompous—from ‘pound note’ and the suffix ‘-ish’, meaning ‘having the qualities of’—the image is probably of someone who pretends to be worth a pound sterling when they are actually worth less

‘in the pudding club’: meaning and origin

8th Mar 2021.Reading time 8 minutes.

UK, 1890—pregnant—refers to “the bulging puddinglike appearance of a pregnant woman”

‘a load of cobblers’: meaning and origin

7th Mar 2021.Reading time 7 minutes.

UK, 1955—‘cobblers’, short for ‘cobbler’s (or cobblers’) awls’, is rhyming slang for ‘balls’, i.e., ‘testicles’, and figuratively ‘nonsense’, ‘rubbish’

‘Flypaper Act’ | ‘to be under, or on, the flypaper’

1st Apr 2020.Reading time 5 minutes.

UK slang, 1906—‘Flypaper Act’: the Prevention of Crimes Act—‘to be under, or on, the flypaper’: to be subject to the Prevention of Crimes Act

meaning and origin of ‘to box clever’

13th Feb 2020.Reading time 9 minutes.

UK, 1935—to conduct oneself adroitly (‘clever’: adverb meaning ‘skilfully’)—originated in boxing

the sexual meanings of ‘crumpet’ in British English

17th May 2019.Reading time 15 minutes.

women regarded collectively as objects of sexual desire; sexual intercourse—first recorded in ‘The Gilt Kid’ (1936), by James Curtis (Geoffrey Basil Maiden)

word histories

Tag: James Curtis (Geoffrey Basil Maiden)