meaning and origin of the phrase ‘alarums and excursions’
confused activity and uproar—alludes to the frequent collocation of ‘alarum’ and ‘excursion’ in stage directions in Shakespearean drama
Read MoreTag: military
origin and sense development of Anglo-Irish ‘bejesus’
1825, Anglo-Irish alteration of ‘by Jesus’—1867 as one word—‘the bejesus out of’ (1931) intensifies the action conveyed by the preceding verb
Read Moreorigin of ‘beard the lion in his den’ (confront someone on their own ground)
Scotland, 1749—from the idea of daring to grab a lion’s “beard” and figurative uses of ‘beard’: (verb) ‘confront’ – (noun) ‘face’
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘like the clappers’
very fast, or very hard—UK, 1942, RAF slang—alludes to the moving metal piece within a bell, which strikes it and produces the sound
Read Morethe curious case of ‘rob’/‘robe’ and of French ‘voler’ (‘to fly’/‘to steal’)
‘robe’ originally denoted something that has been robbed—French ‘voler’ (‘to fly’) has come to mean ‘to steal’ via falconry
Read Moreorigin of the Scottish and Irish phrase ‘on the buroo’ (‘on the dole’)
Scotland, 1914: ‘buroo’, informal form of ‘bureau’ (generic sense)—later used specifically in the sense of Labour Bureau, hence of unemployment benefit (1921)
Read Moremeaning and origin of the American-English phrase ‘(strictly) for the birds’
army slang, early 1940s—euphemistic shortening of ‘shit for the birds’—seems to allude to birds eating droppings from horses and cattle
Read More‘too many chiefs and not enough Indians’: meaning and origin
USA, 1947, of post-war need for soldiers—origin: when playing cowboys and Indians, a child would rather be the chief than an average Indian
Read Moremeaning and origin of ‘to give somebody the (screaming) (h)abdabs’
UK, 1942—fanciful word ‘(h)abdabs’: nervous anxiety or irritation—apparently originated in Royal Air Force slang during WWII
Read Moremeaning and early instances of the phrase ‘like shooting fish in a barrel’
very easy to accomplish—USA, 1902, although recorded in 1898 with perhaps a different meaning
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