‘until hell freezes over’: meaning and origin

11th May 2022.Reading time 9 minutes.

USA, 1832—for an extremely long time or forever

‘wood-and-water joey’: meaning and origin

9th May 2022.Reading time 17 minutes.

Australia, 1847—an odd-job man—‘wood-and-water’ alludes to the phrase ‘hewer of wood and drawer of water’, designating a labourer of the lowest kind—‘joey’ is perhaps the noun denoting a young kangaroo, and by extension anything young or small

‘hewer of wood and drawer of water’: meaning and origin

7th May 2022.Reading time 19 minutes.

1727—a labourer of the lowest kind—refers to the enslavement of the Gibeonites by the Israelites in the Book of Joshua, 9:21-27, as it occurs in the King James Bible (1611)

a disparaging term: ‘Corbynista’

5th May 2022.Reading time 6 minutes.

UK, 2015—(depreciative) a supporter of Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition from 2015 to 2020—coined after nouns such as ‘Sandinista’—intended to liken Corbyn’s supporters at best to radical socialists and at worst to cultists

‘porky’ (rhyming slang for ‘lie’)

3rd May 2022.Reading time 8 minutes.

In British English, the noun ‘porky’ (also ‘porkie’) is short for ‘porky pie’ (also ‘porkie pie’), which is an alteration of ‘pork pie’, rhyming slang for the noun ‘lie’.

attributive use of ‘postcode’

2nd May 2022.Reading time 10 minutes.

UK, 1993—meaning: influenced or determined by a person’s locality or postal address—in phrases such as ‘postcode discrimination’—frequently with reference to the unequal provision of healthcare

‘omnishambles’: meaning and origin

27th Apr 2022.Reading time 16 minutes.

a situation that has been completely mismanaged—from ‘omni-’ and ‘shambles’—coined by Tony Roche in the British television series The Thick of It (3rd series, episode 1, 24 October 2009)

‘to drink the Kool-Aid’: meanings and origin

26th Apr 2022.Reading time 19 minutes.

USA, 1978—to commit suicide; to demonstrate unquestioning obedience or loyalty—alludes to a mass suicide, in 1978, by members of the Peoples’ Temple in Jonestown, Guyana, who drank a cyanide-laced drink thought to be similar to Kool-Aid

‘squeaky clean’: meanings and origin

25th Apr 2022.Reading time 8 minutes.

USA, 1938—(of hair) washed and rinsed so clean that it squeaks—by extension: completely clean—figuratively: above criticism, beyond reproach

‘Mr. Plod’: meaning and origin

23rd Apr 2022.Reading time 19 minutes.

UK, 1963—‘Mr. Plod’, also ‘P.C. Plod’, ‘Plod’: a humorous or mildly derogatory appellation for a policeman or for the police—alludes to ‘Mr. Plod’, the name of the policeman in stories by the English author of children’s fiction Enid Blyton

word histories

Tag: politics