‘rocking-chair money’: meaning and origin
USA, 1938—unemployment insurance, and, broadly, any benefit paid to someone who is not working
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‘rocking-chair job’: meaning and origin
USA—1901 as ‘rocking-chair work’—1907 as ‘rocking-chair job’—a sinecure, i.e., an office or position providing an income or other advantage but requiring little or no work
Read More‘the land of fruits and nuts’: meanings and origin
U.S.A, 1932—also ‘the land of nuts and fruits’—a humorous, sometimes derogatory, appellation for the U.S. state of California—refers to California’s agricultural bounties and to Californians regarded as being ‘nuts’, i.e., crazy
Read More‘to open the kimono’: meaning and origin
USA, 1975—especially used of a firm—to divulge information or secrets—based on the notion of opening one’s kimono and revealing one’s naked body
Read More‘to lose the dressing room’: meaning and origin
1993—Used of the coach or manager of a soccer team, the British- and Irish-English phrase ‘to lose the dressing room’ means to lose the players’ respect.
Read More‘duvet day’: meaning and origin
UK, 1996—an unscheduled extra day’s leave from work, taken to alleviate stress or pressure and sanctioned by one’s employer
Read More‘doona day’: meanings and origin
Australia, 1996—a day spent in bed in order to restore one’s spirits; an unscheduled extra day’s leave from work, taken to alleviate stress or pressure and sanctioned by one’s employer—from ‘Doona’, a proprietary name for an eiderdown or duvet, hence a generic term for any eiderdown or duvet
Read More‘handbags at ten paces’: meaning and origin
UK, 1978—(soccer players) a confrontation that does not lead to serious fighting—based on the cliché ‘pistols at ten paces’—the substitution of ‘pistols’ with ‘handbags’, which evokes women fighting with their handbags, expresses the histrionic character of the confrontation
Read More‘mahogany reef’: meanings and origin
USA, 1924—(jocular, nautical) a bar, i.e., a counter in a pub, restaurant, etc., across which alcoholic drinks are served—also used as the name, or nickname, of an actual drinking establishment—skiers’ corresponding phrase: ‘mahogany ridge’
Read More‘birth-control glasses’: meaning and origin
USA, 1986—ugly spectacles, in particular army-issue spectacles—the image is that those spectacles are so ugly that nobody would want to make a baby with somebody wearing a pair—also ‘BCGs’
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