‘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’
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‘Gallic shrug’: meaning and origin
a gesture (made by a French person to deny responsibility, knowledge or agreement) consisting typically in shrugging one’s shoulders while upturning one’s hands
Read Morethe Napoleonic origin of ‘to wash one’s dirty linen in public’
to discuss an essentially private matter, especially a dispute or scandal, in public—UK, 1819—loan translation from French ‘laver son linge sale en public’, originated by Napoléon Bonaparte in 1814
Read More‘Potemkin village’: meaning and origin
an impressive facade or show designed to hide an embarrassing or shabby fact or condition—1843—from the sham villages said to have been built by Grigori Potemkin to deceive Catherine II
Read More‘glory box’: meaning and origin
a box in which a young woman stores clothes and household articles in preparation for her marriage—Australia, 1902—perhaps related to the British ‘glory hole’, denoting a place for storing odds and ends
Read More‘hope chest’: meaning and origin
a chest or box in which a young woman collects articles towards a home of her own in the event of her marriage—USA, 1904
Read More‘bottom drawer’: meaning and origin
a young woman’s collection of clothes and household articles, kept in preparation for her marriage—UK, 1835?—refers to the (notional?) receptacle where those clothes and household articles are supposed to be kept
Read More‘to tickle the dragon(’s tail)’: meaning and origin
to undertake a dangerous or hazardous operation or activity—UK, 1867, as ‘to tickle the dragon’s nose’—‘to tickle the dragon’s tail’ was used of a nuclear experiment at Los Alamos during WWII
Read More‘spoils system’: meaning and origin
the practice of filling appointive public offices with friends and supporters of the ruling political party—USA, 1834—from “to the victor belong the spoils of the enemy”, used in 1832 by Senator William Marcy
Read More‘dead-cat strategy’: meaning and origin
the strategy consisting in deliberately making a shocking announcement in order to divert attention from a difficulty in which one is embroiled—from the image of throwing a dead cat on the table—first defined in 2013 by Boris Johnson
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word histories 