‘Paris syndrome’: meaning and origin

1st Jul 2021.Reading time 9 minutes.

1992—the culture shock experienced by an individual (typically a Japanese) who, when visiting, or living in, Paris, realises that this city does not fulfil their idealised expectations—apparently a loan translation from Japanese ‘Pari shōkōgun’, coined by Japanese psychiatrist Hiroaki Ōta

origin of ‘impressionist’ and ‘impressionism’

8th Jun 2021.Reading time 26 minutes.

‘impressionist’ (1875) from French ‘impressionniste’ (1874)—a painter who was an exponent of ‘impressionism’ (1877), a movement in painting developed in France in the last third of the 19th century—French ‘impressionnisme’ may have been coined in 1858

the ‘Apaches’ of Paris: meaning and origin

4th May 2020.Reading time 22 minutes.

circa 1900: by association with the reputed ferocity of the North-American Indian people, ‘Apache’ came to designate a violent street ruffian in Paris

the curious origin of ‘cordon bleu’ (first-class cook)

7th Sep 2019.Reading time 8 minutes.

originally the sky-blue ribbon worn by the Knights-grand-cross of the French order of the Holy Ghost—applied by extension to other first-class distinctions

refutation of received ideas on the origin of ‘bikini’

2nd Mar 2019.Reading time 23 minutes.

not originally coined because of the connotation of explosiveness, but because of the connotations of pleasure, beauty and tininess

meaning and origin of ‘the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker’

17th Nov 2018.Reading time 9 minutes.

UK, 1848—people of various professions; people of all kinds—alludes to ‘Rub a dub dub’, a nursery rhyme of the late 18th century

‘to go bald-headed’ (to rush without care or caution)

12th Jun 2018.Reading time 5 minutes.

first recorded in The Biglow Papers (1848), by American author James Russell Lowell—based on the notion of leaving one’s hat behind in a rush of impetuosity

the curious origin of ‘the mind boggles’

5th Jun 2018.Reading time 7 minutes.

primary meaning of ‘boggle’ was ‘to start with fright’, originally with reference to horses—probably related to the nouns ‘bogle’ and ‘bogey’, denoting an evil spirit such as horses are reputed to see

the cinematographic origin of ‘boy meets girl’

28th May 2018.Reading time 5 minutes.

used with reference to a conventional or idealised romance—originated (USA, 1931) in cinematographic plot summaries in which ‘boy meets girl’ featured

adolescence: ‘the awkward age’ – ‘l’âge ingrat’

10th May 2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

UK, 1832—‘the awkward age’: the adolescence, when one is no longer a child but not yet properly grown up, a time of life characterised by physical and emotional changes—translates in French as ‘l’âge ingrat’, ‘the thankless age’