the American-English origin of the phrase ‘like greased lightning’

13th July 2018.Reading time 8 minutes.

denotes extreme quickness of movement—the use of ‘greased’ likens lightning to a machine that a mechanic has lubricated in order to minimise the friction and make it run easily

‘to go bald-headed’ (to rush without care or caution)

12th June 2018.Reading time 6 minutes.

first recorded in The Biglow Papers (1848), by American author James Russell Lowell—based on the notion of leaving one’s hat behind in a rush of impetuosity

meaning and origin of ‘to have straws in one’s hair’

1st June 2018.Reading time 16 minutes.

to be insane—late 19th century—originated in the fact that in 19th-century productions of Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’, Ophelia appeared with straws in her hair in her ‘mad scene’

the phrase ‘a snowball’s chance (in hell)’

22nd May 2018.Reading time 6 minutes.

‘a snowball’s chance in hell’: no chance at all (USA, 1880)—elliptically, ‘a snowball’s chance’ (USA, 1895)—in the 1880s, ‘a snowball in hell’ was also used as a term of comparison to denote something that disappears rapidly

the informal British phrase ‘(as) sick as a parrot’

19th May 2018.Reading time 11 minutes.

meaning: ‘thoroughly dejected or disappointed’—appeared (1973) in Tyne and Wear (north-eastern England)—originated apparently in football parlance, in which it soon became a cliché

origin of ‘Stepford’ (robotically conformist or obedient)

13th May 2018.Reading time 8 minutes.

robotically conformist or obedient—from The Stepford Wives (1972 novel by Ira Levin and 1975 film adaptation by Bryan Forbes), in which Stepford is the name of a superficially idyllic suburb where the men have replaced their wives with obedient robots

origin of ‘to crawl out of the woodwork’

21st April 2018.Reading time 3 minutes.

USA, 1930—‘to crawl, or to come, out of the woodwork’: of an unpleasant or unwelcome person or thing, to come out of hiding, to emerge from obscurity; the image is of vermin or insects crawling out of crevices or other hidden places in a building

‘deliver a baby’: a consumerist approach to childbirth?

15th February 2018.Reading time 7 minutes.

Originally, the mother was the object of ‘deliver’, the image was of delivering (freeing) her from the burden of pregnancy. Nowadays, the healthcare provider or the mother is the subject, the image is of delivering (handing over) the baby, as if it were a package.

‘to go to Peg Trantum’s’ (to go to one’s death)

8th February 2018.Reading time 5 minutes.

First recorded in 1694, ‘Peg Tantrum’ was chiefly used in the phrase ‘to go to Peg Trantum’s’, meaning ‘to go to one’s death’. This word is perhaps from ‘Peg’, rhyming form of ‘Meg’, pet form of the female forenames ‘Margery’ and ‘Margaret’, and from ‘tantrum’.

original meaning of ‘cretin’: ‘Christian’, ‘human being’

27th November 2017.Reading time 5 minutes.

Swiss-French ‘crestin’ (= ‘Christian’): in certain valleys of the Alps, a mentally deficient, deformed person suffering from a congenital thyroid deficiency