“ad fontes!”
USA, 1898—a type of sandwich consisting of a long crusty roll filled with ham, pork, cheese, pickles and mustard, often toasted—originally: any of various types of sandwich associated with Cuban cuisine
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USA, 1942—has often been attributed to the Irish author George Bernard Shaw—has occasionally been applied to the relations between Australia and the USA
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UK, 1916—a scrawny girl or woman—may have originated in the title of a successful song (and in the name of an equally popular character) created in 1911 by the comedienne Lily Long
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USA, 1911: a newcomer—but, from 1903 onwards, as ‘new kid in one’s block’: a child who has recently moved into the block where one lives—‘block’: a group of buildings in a city bounded by intersecting streets on each side
Read Moreimpressively or shockingly big—a blend of ‘gigantic’ and ‘enormous’—apparently coined by Welsh novelist Berta Ruck in Wedding March (1938)
Read Morea picture conveys far more than words—USA, 1877, as ‘a picture tells more than printed words’—from 1866 to 1876 the notion had been used with specific reference to pictures by the cartoonist Thomas Nast
Read Morea cake made with the ingredients available during wartime—first used during the First World War (1914-1918)—came back into usage during the Second World War (1939-1945)
Read More1785—Britain and Ireland—meaning: ‘more harshness than kindness’
Read Morea makeshift incendiary device for throwing by hand, consisting of a bottle filled with flammable liquid and with a piece of cloth as a fuse—Finland, 1940, in reference to Vyacheslav M. Molotov, who led the Soviet campaign against Finland
Read MoreNew Zealand, 1917—a mess, a muddle; something unattractive or unappetising—alludes to the jumbled nature of a pig’s meal
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word histories 