“ad fontes!”
USA—‘aptronymic’ 1915—‘aptonymic’ 1949—‘aptronym’ 1919—‘aptonym’ 1984—these nouns denote a person’s name that is regarded as amusingly appropriate to their profession or personal characteristics—from the adjective ‘apt’, meaning ‘appropriate in the circumstances’, and the suffixes ‘-onymic’ and ‘-onym’
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refers to “All right, have it your own way—you heard a seal bark”, the caption to a drawing by James Thurber, originally published in The New Yorker of 30th January 1932
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USA 1931—a highly enjoyable situation or experience—from ‘life is just a bowl of cherries’ 1928—popularised by song ‘Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries’ 1931
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UK—a confused mess—alludes to the jumbled nature of a dog’s meal—‘like a dog’s dinner’: over-elaborately or ostentatiously dressed
Read MoreUSA, 1928—originally referred to scenario improvising during the silent-film era—the image is of notes written on a shirt-cuff
Read MoreUSA, 1930—‘to crawl, or to come, out of the woodwork’: of an unpleasant or unwelcome person or thing, to come out of hiding, to emerge from obscurity; the image is of vermin or insects crawling out of crevices or other hidden places in a building
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‘the answer to a maiden’s prayer’—primary meaning (USA, 1926): ‘an eligible bachelor’—hence, in extended use, ‘a miracle solution’
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padoodle (USA): exclamation shouted by a person who spots a car with only one working headlight, which entitles this person to kiss or hit someone else
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word histories 