“ad fontes!”
UK, 1923—the north-east corner of Hyde Park, London, near Marble Arch, where public speaking and debate are traditionally permitted with minimal restriction—by extension: any location where public speaking and debate are permitted or encouraged
Read Morewealth gained in one generation of a family will be lost by the third generation—USA, 1874—refers to a hard-working man wearing a shirt with nothing over it
Read Morewealth gained in one generation of a family will be lost by the third generation—UK, 1842, as “there is but one generation in Lancashire between clog and clog”—refers to clogs being typically worn by factory workers
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UK, 1869—a mechanised full-size model of a bull, simulating the movement and behaviour of a bull (particularly in a corrida), used in public entertainments
Read Morevery soon or very quickly—USA, 1836, in a text attributed to Davy Crockett—alludes to the friskiness of lambs
Read More1625—an imminent danger—alludes to Damocles, a courtier of ancient Syracuse, who was given a lesson in the perils to a ruler’s life when forced to sit under a naked sword hanging by a single hair
Read MoreIt has been said that ‘(as) right as a trivet’ an alteration of ‘(as) tight as a rivet’. But the latter phrase, which postdates the former, originally meant ‘extremely tight’, not ‘thoroughly or perfectly right’.
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foul-smelling breath caused by smoking—USA, 1931, in advertisements for Old Golds, a U.S. brand of cigarettes
Read More1988, Australia & USA—apathy, indifference or mental exhaustion arising from exposure to too much information—especially stress induced by the attempt to assimilate excessive amounts of information from the media, the Internet or at work
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UK, derogatory—a male van driver, often of a white van, whose driving is selfish and aggressive—1997, in a report issued by the Freight Transport Association
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word histories 