‘Dunning-Kruger effect’: meaning and origin

18th Feb 2023.Reading time 10 minutes.

a bias whereby people who have little ability in, or knowledge of, a particular task or subject tend to overestimate their capabilities—USA, 2008—refers to David Dunning and Justin Kruger, who described this bias in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 1999

‘to give credit where credit is due’: meaning and origin

28th Nov 2022.Reading time 11 minutes.

to acknowledge merit or achievement when it is deserved, even if one is reluctant to do so—UK, 1783

‘wokerati’: meaning and origin

21st Oct 2022.Reading time 8 minutes.

USA, 2019, derogatory—people (regarded as elitist and pretentious) who are alert to racial or social discrimination and injustice—a blend of the adjective ‘woke’ and of the noun ‘literati’

‘humongous’: meaning and origin

30th Sep 2022.Reading time 8 minutes.

extremely large, huge, enormous—USA, 1967—of uncertain origin; probably a factitious adjective coined on the suffix ‘-ous’, influenced by ‘hugeous’ and ‘monstrous’, and perhaps by the stress-patterns of ‘stupendous’, ‘tremendous’, etc.

‘to pull out all the stops’: meaning and origin

19th Sep 2022.Reading time 11 minutes.

to do everything possible to achieve a result or effect—UK, 1865 (as ‘to pull out a few more stops’)—alludes to pulling out all the stops of an organ in order to produce a full and thrilling sound

‘Iron Weathercock’ (as applied to Liz Truss)

6th Sep 2022.Reading time 5 minutes.

UK, 2022— translates French ‘girouette de fer’—a derisive nickname for Liz Truss, in reference both to ‘Iron Lady’ (a nickname for Margaret Thatcher) and to Liz Truss’s changing views on a variety of subjects

word histories

Tag: Liz Truss