“ad fontes!”
UK, 1969—a young man of a working-class subculture, characterised by close-cropped hair, heavy boots and functional clothing, and behaving in an aggressive or violent way—‘bovver’ represents a nonstandard pronunciation of ‘bother’
Read MoreUK, 1872—meaning: ‘it would be good if something (stated or implied) were true or likely, but it is not’
Read Moreto do or say something which causes trouble, controversy or upset—first occurs (1841 & 1843, Yorkshire, northern England) in quotation marks, which indicates that it was already in common usage
Read Moremeaning: ‘what is appropriate in one case is also appropriate in the other case in question’—earliest occurrence in A Collection of English Proverbs (1670), by John Ray
Read More‘to sleep in Mother Greenfield’s’ (tramp slang): to sleep out in the open fields—‘to worship under Dr. Greenfield’: to go for a walk in the countryside rather than to attend a religious service
Read MoreIndia, 1958—euphemistic appellation for verbal or physical sexual harassment of a woman by a man in a public place—refers to Eve, the first woman in the biblical account of the creation of the world, who is seen as a temptress
Read MoreUSA, 1907—the (alleged) form of dementedness, leading to violence, that takes hold of a man who believes that his home has been invaded, or that his family has been violated—coined by attorney Delphin M. Delmas, who defended Harry K. Thaw in his first murder trial
Read MoreUSA, 1975—to hastily or furtively leave a restaurant, cafe, etc., in order to avoid paying for one’s bill—also used as a noun, especially as a modifier—has also been used of meals eaten quickly
Read More1890s—to use extravagant words or language not substantiated by fact; to talk nonsense—occurs in particular in stories by the British authors Ernest William Hornung (1866-1921) and Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (1881-1975)
Read MoreAustralia, 1843—used as a type of the isolated, deprived or exposed—refers to a shag (i.e., a cormorant) perched alone on a rock
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