‘sneaky-beaky’: meaning and origin
an intelligence operative, also an intelligence operation—UK, 1966—from ‘sneaky’ (furtive, deceitful) and ‘beaky’ (referring to an overly inquisitive person, with allusion to a prominent nose)
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‘(as) thick as a brick’: meaning and origin
very stupid—popularised by Jethro Tull’s ‘Thick as a Brick’ (1972), but already existed—in early use (19th century) applied to nouns such as ‘skull’ and ‘head’, used metonymically for ‘intelligence’
Read MoreWhy the French language is intrinsically sexist.
In French, the concept of dependency underlies the semantic distribution of some basic lexical items: the female is strictly defined in her relation of dependency to the male, as a daughter or as a spouse.
Read More‘to drop one’s aitches’: meaning and early occurrences
also ‘to drop one’s h’s’—not to pronounce the letter h at the beginning of words in which it is pronounced in standard English—1855—1847 as ‘not to sound one’s h’s’
Read More‘honest Injun’: meaning and origin
used as an interjection to assert truthfulness, honour or sincerity—USA, 1851, as ‘honest Indian’—perhaps alludes to the fact that, in their past interactions with Europeans, Native Americans had to give assurance of their good faith
Read Morenotes on ‘no joy without alloy’
also ‘no joy without annoy’—meaning: there is a trace of trouble or difficulty in every pleasure—was already a common proverb in the late sixteenth century
Read More‘plonk’ (cheap inferior wine): origin and early occurrences
Australia, 1927—alteration of ‘blanc’ in French ‘vin blanc’ (‘white wine’)—via rhyming slang forms such as ‘plinketty-plonk’, from phrases such as ‘vin blank’ in the slang of soldiers stationed in France during WWI
Read More‘oojah’: meanings (and origin?)
UK, 1917—used when one cannot think of, or does not wish to use, the name of a thing; by extension, a useful implement, a gadget—origin unknown
Read More‘porky’ (rhyming slang for ‘lie’)
In British English, the noun ‘porky’ (also ‘porkie’) is short for ‘porky pie’ (also ‘porkie pie’), which is an alteration of ‘pork pie’, rhyming slang for the noun ‘lie’.
Read More‘powfagged’: meaning and origin
meaning: ‘extremely tired’—origin (Lancashire, England, 1859): from the noun ‘pow’, variant of ‘poll’, denoting ‘a person’s head’, and the adjective ‘fagged’, meaning ‘extremely tired’
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