meanings and origin of ‘bell, book, and candle’
14th century—a form of excommunication from the Catholic Church—by extension any process of condemnation carried out thoroughly
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British phrases based on the image of being ‘on toast’
with allusion to food served up on a slice of toast—1877 ‘to have someone on toast’: to have someone at one’s mercy—1886 ‘to be had on toast’: to be cheated
Read Moremeanings and origin of the term ‘Philadelphia lawyer’
USA, 1788—an able, clever lawyer; now often one who is unscrupulous in the manipulation of the law—from Philadelphia lawyers’ reputation since the colonial period
Read Moremeaning and origin of ‘Comstockism’ and ‘Comstockery’
USA—‘Comstockism’ 1878, ‘Comstockery’ 1889—strict censorship of materials considered obscene—after anti-vice activist Anthony Comstock (1844-1915)
Read Moreorigin and sense development of the verb ‘shanghai’
USA—1853 to kidnap for service aboard ship—seems to have originated in San Francisco—refers to Shanghai in China, the ships in question going to eastern Asia
Read Moreorigin of ‘no-go area’: the Troubles in Northern Ireland
1969 as ‘No Go Land’, proper name of a Catholic ghetto in Belfast—1970 as ‘no-go area’, any Northern-Irish area to which entry was restricted or forbidden
Read Morethe various figurative meanings of ‘dirty spoon’
UK, 1849: cheap dingy eatery, as a translation from German—USA, from 1862 onwards: brothel, squalid lodging-house, bar; 1897: cheap dingy eatery
Read More‘over a barrel’: meaning, early instances and probable origin
USA, 1890—at someone’s mercy—probably alludes to the practice of binding a person over an overturned barrel in order to beat them
Read Moremeaning and origin of the British phrase ‘to go down the pan’
UK, 1950—to be completely lost or wasted; to fail utterly—alludes to ‘pan’ in the sense of the bowl of a toilet
Read Moremeaning and origin of the term ‘Streisand effect’
USA, 2005—coined by Mike Masnick on Techdirt.com—refers to Barbra Streisand’s counterproductive attempt in 2003 to ban a photo of her house
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