‘drama queen’: meaning and origin
(derogatory) a person who is prone to exaggeratedly dramatic behaviour—UK, 1978
Read MoreTag: medicine
‘blood wagon’: meaning and origin
UK—an ambulance (i.e., a vehicle designed to carry sick or injured people)—originally (Royal Air Force slang, 1921): a specially equipped airplane for carrying sick or injured people
Read More‘to give credit where credit is due’: meaning and origin
to acknowledge merit or achievement when it is deserved, even if one is reluctant to do so—UK, 1783
Read More‘to rob Peter to pay Paul’: meanings and origin
to take away from one person, cause, etc., in order to pay or confer something on another; to discharge one debt by incurring another—late 14th century—from the association of ‘Peter’ and ‘Paul’, the names of two leading apostles and saints, and fellow martyrs at Rome
Read More‘pizza face’: meaning and origin
a person with facial acne—Californian high-school slang, 1963—in this expression, the pimples caused by facial acne are likened to slices of pepperoni on a pizza
Read More‘baby blues’: meaning and origin
depression suffered by a mother in the period following childbirth—USA, 1940, in Expectant Motherhood, by Nicholson Joseph Eastman—variant: ‘after-the-baby blues’ (USA, 1940)
Read More‘limerence’: meaning, origin and early occurrences
the state of being romantically infatuated or obsessed with another person—USA, 1975—coined by U.S. psychologist Dorothy Tennov
Read More‘Pharaoh’s Revenge’: meaning and origin
diarrhoea suffered by travellers, especially in Egypt—USA, 1973—does not seem to have been coined after the synonymous ‘Montezuma’s Revenge’—may somehow allude to the legendary curse of the pharaohs
Read More‘gyppy tummy’: meaning and origin
diarrhoea suffered by travellers, especially in Egypt—1915, British Army—the word ‘gyppy’ is from ‘gyp’ in ‘Egyptian’, and the suffix ‘-y’, used to form familiar diminutives
Read More‘granny-bashing’ | ‘granny-battering’: meanings and origin
UK, 1972—the nouns ‘granny-bashing’ and ‘granny-battering’ denote: a) the assault or mugging of elderly persons; b) abuse of an elderly member of one’s family, especially one’s grandmother
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word histories 