‘lay on, Macduff’ | ‘lead on, Macduff’
from Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’—1814 ‘lay on, Macduff’: go ahead (and give it your best try)—1855 misquotation ‘lead on, Macduff’: let’s get going, start us off
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meanings and origin of ‘to spend a penny’
UK, 1945—with allusion to the former price of admission to public lavatories: to use a public convenience—by extension: to urinate
Read Moremeaning and origin of ‘street angel (and) house devil’
USA, 1878—someone who behaves exemplarily in public, but who is abusive in private life—calque of German ‘Strass-Engel Haus-Teufel’
Read Morethe humorous phrase ‘late for one’s own funeral’
UK and USA, 1881—addressed or applied to one guilty of chronic and irritating unpunctuality—occasionally used literally
Read Moremeaning and origin of ‘not to have a scooby’
to have no idea at all—Scotland, 1990—‘scooby’ (short for ‘Scooby Doo’, name of cartoon dog in U.S. television series and films): rhyming slang for ‘clue’
Read Moremeaning and origin of ‘not to have the foggiest’
to have no idea at all—UK, 1913, shortening of ‘not to have the foggiest idea’ and variants (mid-19th century)—adjective ‘foggy’ means hazy, vague
Read Moremeaning and origin of ‘to box clever’
UK, 1935—to conduct oneself adroitly (‘clever’: adverb meaning ‘skilfully’)—originated in boxing
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 Moremeaning and origin of ‘it’s all part of life’s rich pattern’
an ironically resigned, yet far from submissive, reflection upon the vicissitudes of life—UK, 1937 in The Games Mistress, a monologue by Arthur Marshall
Read More‘booze cruise’ #1: a Scottish acceptation
1950—Sunday trip by car or bus, making use of the bona fide clause in licensing laws, by which non-residents got alcohol—coined by Scottish novelist George Blake
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