meaning and origin of the phrase ‘this is where we came in’
when there were consecutive screenings of a film, spectators could start watching at any point and stay on to watch the first part on the next showing
Read MoreTag: phrases
meanings and origin of the British-English phrase ‘to go west’
to die; to be lost or destroyed; to meet with disaster—1914, Army slang—probably from the notion of the setting sun symbolising disappearance or finality
Read Moreorigin of ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’
UK, 1892—postdates by several years variants such as ‘eat an apple on going to bed, and you will keep the doctor from earning his bread’
Read Moremeaning and origin of the British phrase ‘the acceptable face of ——’
1973—from ‘the unacceptable face of capitalism’, used by Prime Minister Edward Heath during a debate at the House of Commons on 15 May 1973
Read Morethe cultural background to the phrase ‘to shop till one drops’
USA, 1904—from the image of shopping until one is physically exhausted and unable to continue—alludes to the consumerist avidity prompted by department stores
Read Moreorigin of ‘first past the post’ (as applied to a voting system)
Australia and New Zealand 1913—alludes to horse racing, in which a horse wins a race by being the first to pass the finishing post
Read MoreHow the British phrase ‘one’s finest hour’ arose in 1940.
the time of one’s greatest success—from the speech made on 18 June 1940 by P.M. Winston Churchill after the fall of France and before the Battle of Britain
Read More‘cheese-eating/tea-drinking surrender monkeys’
‘cheese-eating surrender monkeys’: the French people (USA, 1995) from The Simpsons—‘tea-drinking surrender monkeys’: the British people (Ireland, 2004)
Read More‘over a barrel’: meaning, early instances and probable origin
USA, 1890—at someone’s mercy—probably alludes to the practice of binding a person over an overturned barrel in order to beat them
Read Moreearly American-English figurative uses of ‘rock bottom’
1858-60 steadfast political commitment—1861-62 sureness—1864-65 very low retail prices—1895-66 (economics) the lowest possible level (?)
Read More
word histories 