“ad fontes!”
state of South Australia, 1952—a traffic warden—from the fact that South Australian traffic wardens licked the adhesive parking tickets in order to stick them to the windscreens—hence also the verb ‘sticker-lick’
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the movement of the hand in brushing away flies—first recorded in 1967 in a speech by Fred Chaney, Member of the Australian House of Representatives—variants: ‘the Queensland salute’; ‘the Barcoo salute’
Read MoreAmerican English, 1823—meaning: if one is falsely reputed to act in a specific manner, then one may as well act in that manner
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21st century: the practice of maintaining a certain distance between oneself and other people in order to prevent infection with a disease—20th century: the practice of maintaining a degree of remoteness or emotional separation from another person or social group
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retort to the accusation of being paranoid (i.e., of seeing imaginary enemies)—USA, 1966—often ascribed to U.S. poet Delmore Schwartz
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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
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great vitality, enthusiasm and liveliness—UK, 1922—originally (from 1921 onwards) used in the advertisements for Kruschen Salts
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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)
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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
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to achieve the impossible—USA, 1881—originally and chiefly used with reference to hair loss treatment
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word histories 