‘Dickless Tracy’: meanings and origin

20th Oct 2021.Reading time 9 minutes.

USA, 1963—a female police officer or a female traffic warden—puns on ‘dick’, slang for a man’s penis, and the name of Dick Tracy, a comic-strip detective created in 1931 by the U.S. cartoonist Chester Gould

‘grey meanie’: meaning and origin

16th Oct 2021.Reading time 9 minutes.

Australia, 1970—a Melbourne City Council parking officer—the adjective ‘grey’ refers to the colour of those officers’ uniform; the noun ‘meanie’ refers to the nastiness displayed by those officers in the accomplishment of their duties

‘the whole box and dice’: meaning and origin

9th Sep 2021.Reading time 12 minutes.

Australia, 1828—Ireland, 1832—a group of things or people in its entirety—‘box’ refers to a box from which dice are thrown in gaming or gambling

‘Jenny Darby’ (policeman)

4th Aug 2021.Reading time 10 minutes.

UK, 1830—‘Jenny Darby’, ‘Johnny Darm’, and variants, were originally opprobrious names for any member of the new Metropolitan Police introduced in 1829 by Robert Peel—alterations of ‘gendarme’, with full or partial folk-etymological remodelling variously after the female forename ‘Jenny’, the male forename ‘Johnny’, and the surname ‘Darby’

‘savoury duck’: meaning and origin

9th Jul 2021.Reading time 11 minutes.

Lancashire, England, 1833—a faggot, a meatball, “a compound of onions, flour, and small pieces of pork” (The Liverpool Echo, 20 August 1880)—probably one of the common dishes humorously named after daintier items of food

‘jam butty’ (police patrol car)

2nd Jul 2021.Reading time 9 minutes.

UK, 1971—‘jam butty’ (also ‘jam sandwich’): a colloquial appellation for a police patrol car having a red stripe painted on a white background

‘until Nelson gets his eye back’: meaning and origin

20th Jun 2021.Reading time 12 minutes.

UK and Ireland—with reference to the fact that Horatio Nelson was blinded in one eye—(1922) ‘until/when Nelson gets his eye back’ is used of a very long time in the future—(1933) the metaphor of Nelson getting his eye back is used of a very small chance of success

‘queue-jump’, ‘to jump the queue’: meanings and early occurrences

5th Jun 2021.Reading time 24 minutes.

UK, 1920 (‘queue-jumper’)—literally: to push forward out of turn in a queue—figuratively: to obtain unfair priority over others—especially used since the 1930s in relation to compulsory queueing schemes implemented by public-transport authorities

‘gavroche’: meaning and origin

9th May 2021.Reading time 10 minutes.

USA, 1863—a street urchin, especially in Paris, France—from ‘Gavroche’, the name of a street urchin in Les Misérables (1862), a novel by Victor Hugo

notes on phrases such as ‘nom de crinoline’ and ‘nom de freak’

29th Apr 2021.Reading time 19 minutes.

On the pattern of phrases such as ‘nom de guerre’, ‘nom de théâtre’ and ‘nom de plume’, ‘nom de —’ is used, often humorously, to form phrases denoting a pseudonym, an alternative name.