meaning and origin of the British phrase ‘big girl’s blouse’
1969—a weak, cowardly or oversensitive man—analogy between a cowardly man “in a flap” and an oversize garment hanging loose, fluttering
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origin and meanings of ‘dreaming spires’
the city or university of Oxford; the sheltered condition of unworldly academics—from the poem ‘Thyrsis’ (1866), by Matthew Arnold
Read More‘backward in coming forward’ and the Napoleonic Wars
‘Backward in coming forward’ means ‘reluctant, shy to do something’. The earliest instances that I have found are about funds set up in order to provide aid to soldiers wounded during the Napoleonic Wars.
Read Morethe story of ‘greengrocer’s apostrophe’, a.k.a. ‘apostrofly’
UK, ‘greengrocer’s apostrophe’ – ‘apostrofly’: the mistaken use of an apostrophe, especially its insertion before the final ‘s’ of an ordinary plural form
Read Morea Lancashire phrase: ‘the full monty’
something in its entirety—UK, 2nd half of 20th cent.—the sense of striptease performance involving full nudity was popularised by the 1997 film The Full Monty.
Read Morethe authentic origin of ‘quiz’ (“Vir bonus est quis?”)
Originally meaning ‘person of ridiculous appearance’, ‘quiz’ (students’ slang, late 18th century) was jocularly derived from the Latin interrogative pronoun ‘quis’ in “Vir bonus est quis?” (“Who is a good man?”)—a good, ingenuous, harmless man being likely to become an object of ridicule or even of harassment.
Read Moremeanings and history of the term ‘hot mess’
This advertisement for the second season (2014) of comedienne Amy Schumer’s sketch show, Inside Amy Schumer, highlighted both the “hot” and “mess” sides of her personality — photograph: Jamey Welch Creative The primary meanings of the noun mess are a serving of food, a course, a meal, a prepared dish of a specified […]
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘to play to the gallery’
the gods at the Comedy Theatre, London, 1949 source: Historic England – The Theatres Trust Via Middle French galerie, the noun gallery, attested in the late 15th century, is from the medieval Latin of Italy galeria, an alteration of medieval Latin galilaea, designating a porch at the entrance of a monastery’s church—hence English […]
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘the cup that cheers’
The phrase the cup that cheers but not inebriates and its variants refer to tea as a drink which invigorates a person without causing drunkenness. It is from The Winter Evening, the fourth book of The Task. A Poem, in six Books (1785), by the English poet and letter-writer William Cowper (1731-1800): Now stir the fire, and close the […]
Read Morethe authentic origin of the word ‘teetotal’
tombstone of Richard ‘Dicky’ Turner at Preston “Beneath this stone are deposited the remains of Richard Turner, author of the word teetotal as applied to abstinence from all intoxicating liquors, who departed this life on the 27th day of October 1846, aged 56 years.” photograph: Paul D. Swarbrick The adjective teetotal in […]
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