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Tag: Latin

notes on the phrase ‘Is the Pope (a) Catholic?’

27th Dec 2019.Reading time 16 minutes.

USA, 1951—rhetorical question used ironically as a response to a question or statement felt to be blatantly obvious

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meaning and history of the phrase ‘feed the brute’

17th Oct 2019.Reading time 12 minutes.

nourish your husband—1882 in ‘Vanity Fair’ (London)—popularised in 1885 by a cartoon by George du Maurier, published in ‘Punch, or the London Charivari’

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meaning and history of ‘spring forward, fall back’

13th Sep 2019.Reading time 15 minutes.

USA, 1936—serves as a mnemonic for remembering to set the clocks when daylight-saving time comes into effect and when it ends

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origin and meanings of ‘Ruritania’ and ‘Ruritanian’

18th Aug 2019.Reading time 7 minutes.

from The Prisoner of Zenda (1894), set in the fictional kingdom of Ruritania—UK, 1896: romantic adventure and intrigue; any imaginary or hypothetical country

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‘Fabian’ applied to George Washington | the Fabian Society

16th Aug 2019.Reading time 13 minutes.

Washington’s strategy was similar to that of Fabius Cunctator, who defeated Hannibal by avoiding decisive contests—the Fabian Society advocates gradual reforms

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meanings and early instances of ‘Freudian slip’

15th Aug 2019.Reading time 15 minutes.

USA, 1927—a slip of the tongue by which the speaker reveals an unconscious thought—named after Austrian neurologist and psychotherapist Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

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Why ‘island’ and ‘aisle’ ought to be spelt ‘iland’ and ‘aile’.

2nd Aug 2019.Reading time 9 minutes.

The letter ‘s’ in both the nouns currently spelt ‘island’ and ‘aisle’ is due to folk-etymological association of those words with the unrelated noun ‘isle’.

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meaning and origin of the term ‘éminence grise’

24th Jul 2019.Reading time 11 minutes.

UK, 1877—a person who wields unofficial power and influence—originally applied to Père Joseph (François Leclerc du Tremblay), French friar, confidential agent of Cardinal Richelieu

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meaning and origin of ‘sentence first (and) verdict afterwards’

14th Jul 2019.Reading time 11 minutes.

UK, 1869—used to denounce arbitrariness—alludes to a demand by the Queen of Hearts during the trial of the Knave of Hearts in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865)

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the curious case of the French word ‘oignon’

16th Jun 2019.Reading time 12 minutes.

Decided by the Académie française, the erroneous spelling ‘oignon’ (= ‘onion’) has become a symbol of prejudiced people, ignorant of the history of their own language.

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