“ad fontes!”
to take away from one person, cause, etc., in order to pay or confer something on another; to discharge one debt by incurring another—late 14th century—from the association of ‘Peter’ and ‘Paul’, the names of two leading apostles and saints, and fellow martyrs at Rome
Read Moreoriginally “If the Hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet wil go to the hil” in Of Boldnesse (1625), an essay by the English philosopher and statesman Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
Read Moreto muster up all one’s courage—UK, 1830—probably a calque of the French phrase ‘prendre son courage à deux mains’
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a woman regarded as an object of sexual desire—UK, 1895—from ‘crackling’, denoting the crisp skin or rind of roast pork
Read More(literally): to fall heavily; (figuratively): to fail completely—UK, 1847—‘cropper’ may be derived from ‘crop’ in the phrase ‘neck and crop’ (1791), which originally referred to a heavy fall
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a rebuke given in private by a wife to her husband—1625—from the idea that, in order to conduct herself properly, a wife was to rebuke her husband in secret only, i.e., in the privacy of their curtained bed
Read Moreused of a person who likes to observe other people’s activities from his or her window, in a furtive and prying manner—UK and Ireland, 1940
Read Morelove or affection insincerely professed or displayed as a means of gaining a benefit or advantage—circa 1665—the image is of love given in return for food from a cupboard
Read Morethe political, military or economical threat regarded as being posed by certain peoples of South-East and East Asia, especially the Chinese and the Japanese—UK, 1895—loan translation from French ‘péril jaune’
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faced with two equally difficult alternatives; in a dilemma—USA, 1914
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word histories 