‘twelve good men and true’: meaning and origin
a jury in a lawcourt—17th century—but the selection of twelve good men and true to form a jury was mentioned in the 16th century
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‘kangaroo court’ and synonyms: meanings and early occurrences
also ‘mustang court’ and ‘kangaroo inquest’—USA, 1840—a mock court that disregards or parodies existing principles of law; any tribunal in which judgment is rendered arbitrarily or unfairly
Read More‘ball and chain’ (literal and figurative uses)
USA 1813—a heavy metal ball secured by a chain to a person’s leg to prevent escape or as a punishment—figuratively, mid-19th century: anything seen as a heavy restraint, especially the matrimonial bonds
Read More‘truth is stranger than fiction’: meaning and origin
real events and situations are often more remarkable or incredible than those made up in fiction—first occurred as ‘truth is always strange, stranger than fiction’ in Don Juan (1823), by George Gordon Byron
Read More‘in full fig’: meaning and origin
smartly dressed—from the verb ‘fig out/up’, meaning ‘to smarten up’—this verb is probably an alteration of the verb ‘feague’, of uncertain origin, meaning ‘to make (a horse) lively’
Read More‘to be thankful for small mercies’: meaning and origin
to be glad of minor benefits, especially in an otherwise unpleasant or troublesome situation—first recorded in The Heart of Midlothian (1818), by Walter Scott
Read Morenotes on ‘Waiting for Godot without Godot’
UK, 1999—refers to ‘Waiting for Godot’, a play by Samuel Beckett—absurd phrase, since the titular character never appears in the play—always occurs in association with the phrase ‘Hamlet without the Prince’
Read More‘Black Hole of Calcutta’: meaning and origin
an oppressive, very confined or crowded space—UK, 1764—refers to the punishment cell at Fort William, Calcutta, in which, in 1756, the Nawab of Bengal reputedly confined British and Anglo-Indian prisoners
Read More‘to be all fingers and thumbs’: meaning and origin
also ‘to be all thumbs’—to be extremely clumsy (i.e., lacking in manual dexterity)—19th century—variants of the original phrase ‘each finger is a thumb’, already proverbial in the mid-16th century
Read More‘grass widower’: meaning and origin
a married man living apart from his wife—UK, 1822—coined after ‘grass widow’
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word histories 