a theatrical phrase: ‘it will be all right at night’
British English, 1843—The theatrical phrase it will be (or it will come) all right at night (or all right on the night) means the opening night will go well.
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‘“Hell!” said the duchess’: meanings and origin
originated (1915) as the jocular beginning, destined to grip the reader’s attention, of a hypothetical novel or short story—soon (1919) came to be also used either without precise meaning or as a jocular exclamation
Read More‘wogs begin at Calais’: meaning and origin
1947—is used to express an attitude of insularity and hostility to foreigners attributed to the British—a shortening of ‘golliwog’, the derogatory and offensive noun ‘wog’ designates a non-white person
Read More‘if it’s Tuesday, this must be Belgium’: meaning and origin
title of a CBS television documentary first broadcast in 1966—came to be used derogatorily of any fast package-tour—gave rise to the pattern ‘(if) it’s Tuesday, this (or it) must be ——’, used of travel anywhere
Read More‘gone on the padre’s bike’: meaning and early occurrences
reply to any request for somebody’s whereabouts—Australia, 1944: slang of the Australian armed forces during WWII—original meaning: absent without leave
Read More‘without a bone in the truck’: meaning and early occurrences
Australia, 1891—used to comment on the lack of work done—of unknown origin; may have originated in butchering, i.e., the preparation and sale of meat
Read Morea humorous phrase: ‘where did you get your licence?’
USA, 1933—usually followed by an incongruous supposition—an allegation of incompetence addressed to the driver of a motor car by another motorist, or by a cyclist or a pedestrian
Read More‘overpaid, overdressed, oversexed and over here’
Australia and U.S.A, 1944—purportedly applied by the British and the Australians to the U.S. soldiers stationed in their respective countries during World War II—British self-deprecating retort: ‘underpaid, underdressed, undersexed and under Eisenhower’
Read More‘not to have two yachts to rub together’
applied to a rich person complaining of having insufficient means of existence; to a person who is merely free from financial worry—USA, 1936—coined humorously after ‘not to have two pennies to rub together’
Read More‘where the rubber meets the road’: meanings and origin
USA, 1956—where the important facts or realities lie; where theory is put into practice—originated in the jargon of the advertising business, in which ‘let’s get down (to) where the rubber meets the road’ meant ‘how much is it going to cost?’
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