‘even paranoids have enemies’: meaning and origin
retort to the accusation of being paranoid (i.e., of seeing imaginary enemies)—USA, 1966—often ascribed to U.S. poet Delmore Schwartz
Read MoreTag: medicine
‘look (mum, or ma), no hands!’: meaning and origin
used of something done cleverly—British and American—originated as the proud exclamation of a child riding a bicycle with no hands on the handlebars
Read More‘that Kruschen feeling’: meaning and origin
great vitality, enthusiasm and liveliness—UK, 1922—originally (from 1921 onwards) used in the advertisements for Kruschen Salts
Read More‘hell hath no fury like a woman’s corns’
Ireland, 1845: ‘hell has no fury like a woman corned’—puns on ‘hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’, which refers to Congreve’s ‘The Mourning Bride’ (1697)
Read More‘protocol, alcohol and Geritol’: original meaning
USA, 1959—a summary of social life in Washington DC, especially for aged men—attributed by columnist Betty Beale to Columbia University President Grayson Kirk
Read Moremeaning and origin of ‘to grow hair on a billiard ball’
to achieve the impossible—USA, 1881—originally and chiefly used with reference to hair loss treatment
Read More‘damaged goods’ and venereal disease
1911—‘Damaged Goods’, translation of ‘Les Avariés’, by French dramatist Eugène Brieux, about the dangers of ignorance concerning sexually transmitted diseases
Read Morehistory of the phrase ‘every picture tells a story’
used of images suggestive of real or imaginary events—UK and USA early 1900s: popularised by its use as an advertising slogan for Doan’s Backache Kidney Pills
Read More‘mushroom treatment: kept in the dark and fed bullshit’
American English, 1965—signification: to be kept in a state of ignorance and told nonsense—in use a few years later in Australian English and British English
Read Morehistory of the phrase ‘(it) takes one to know one’
USA, 1926—only a person with a given personality, characteristic, etc., is able to identify that quality in someone else—particularly used of homosexuals
Read More
word histories 