‘to pop one’s clogs’: meaning and early occurrences
1914—the colloquial British-English phrase ‘to pop one’s clogs’ means ‘to die’—while ‘clog’ designates a shoe with a thick wooden sole, the acceptation of the verb ‘to pop’ is obscure
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‘a penny soul never came to twopence’
UK, 1844—extreme meanness never made anyone better off—compare Book of Proverbs, 11:24: “There is one who scatters, yet increases more; and there is one who withholds more than is right, but it leads to poverty.”
Read More‘an accident waiting to happen’: meanings and early occurrences
USA, 1905—a situation that is likely to lead to disaster or misfortune, especially because of negligence or neglect; someone who behaves in a way that is likely to cause trouble
Read More‘can a moose crochet?’: meaning and origin
USA, 1967—emphatic negative phrase meaning ‘well, hardly’ or ‘no, that’s impossible’—used as the title of a jazz piece composed by Johnny Hodges—said to be a folk phrase that he had heard “out West”
Read More‘the opera ain’t over until the fat lady sings’: meaning and origin
USA, 1976—the outcome of a situation cannot be assumed—may allude to the stereotype of a large female soprano singing the final aria of an opera—from ‘church ain’t out ’till the fat lady sings’ (1976), itself from ‘church ain’t out until the singing is over’ (1872)
Read More‘the night’s (only) a pup’: meaning and origin
colloquial, Australia, 1910—‘the night’s (only) a pup’, or ‘the day’s (only) a pup’, means the night, or the day, is young—refers to ‘pup’ in the sense of a young dog
Read More‘Malley’s cow’: meaning and origin
Australia, 1951—used of someone who has departed and left no indication of their present whereabouts—purportedly from the story of one Malley, who was told by his boss to hold a cow; on the boss’s return, the cow had disappeared, and Malley said “She’s a goner!”
Read More‘(as) fit as a mallee bull’: meaning and origin
Australia, 1960—very fit and well, in robust health—the image is of a bull strengthened by his living in one of the semi-desert areas of Australia in which the principal vegetation is mallee, i.e., low-growing bushy eucalyptus
Read More‘figures won’t lie, but liars will figure’: meaning and early occurrences
USA, 1872—the first clause refers to accurate calculations, the second punningly refers to the manipulation of those calculations—based on the figure called chiasmus, i.e., in which the order of words in the first clause is inverted in the second
Read More‘doesn’t buy (the) groceries’: meaning and early occurrences
USA, 1911—is applied to an act or activity that brings in no money—is often preceded by the third-person singular pronoun ‘it’
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