‘Lear without the King’ | ‘Henry V without the King’
an event or occasion at which the expected principal participant is not present—coined after ‘Hamlet without the Prince’—‘Lear without the King’ 1904—‘Henry V without the King’ 1964
Read More“ad fontes!”
an event or occasion at which the expected principal participant is not present—coined after ‘Hamlet without the Prince’—‘Lear without the King’ 1904—‘Henry V without the King’ 1964
Read MoreUK, 1999—refers to ‘Waiting for Godot’, a play by Samuel Beckett—absurd phrase, since the titular character never appears in the play—always occurs in association with the phrase ‘Hamlet without the Prince’
Read MoreUSA, 1981—said to have been invented by cheerleader ‘Krazy George’—popularised worldwide during the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico, as a translation of Spanish ‘ola’—hence the British phrase ‘Mexican wave’ (1986)
Read Moremeaning: to try especially hard to achieve something or do it well—originally ‘to go the second mile’—alludes to the gospel of Matthew, 5:41: “And whosoeuer shall compell thee to goe a mile, goe with him twaine”
Read Morethe practice of coasting downhill in a motor vehicle, with the engine disengaged—USA, 1949, lorry-drivers’ slang—one of the phrases in which ‘Mexican’ denotes basic devices or processes compared unfavourably with more advanced equivalents
Read Morealso ‘more than meets the ear’—meaning: more significance or complexity than is at first apparent—first used by John Milton as ‘more is meant than meets the ear’ in Il Penseroso (1645)
Read More(literally) to sit at a table; (figuratively) to establish oneself firmly in a situation—‘to put one’s feet under the same table with somebody’: (literally) to sit at a table with somebody; (figuratively) to associate oneself with somebody
Read Moreevery contribution towards a goal is valuable, regardless of how small it may be—UK, 1707—in Britain, particularly associated with Tesco, which has used this phrase as its slogan since 1993
Read Morevarious meanings, in particular: something with a larger capacity than its outward appearance suggests—UK, 1968—the name, in TV series Doctor Who, of a time machine outwardly resembling a police telephone box, yet inwardly much larger
Read Morethe game of cricket played in the incorrect manner or improper spirit—hence, more generally, something contrary to traditional standards of fairness or rectitude—UK, 19th century
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