“ad fontes!”
USA, 2003—Following France’s opposition to the proposed U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the expression ‘freedom fries’ was substituted for ‘French fries’. This, and other expressions in which ‘freedom’ was substituted for ‘French’, may have been coined almost simultaneously by various persons, independently from each other.
Read Morederisive, derogatory nickname for the U.S. State of Connecticut—a blend of the adjective ‘corrupt’ and of the name ‘Connecticut’—first appeared in 2003 in reference to a series of corruption scandals involving public officials
Read MoreYupik—meaning: “his mind knows what to do but he does not do it”—applied to someone who consistently violates the norms of society in multiple ways—used in January 2022 by Dominic Cummings to describe Boris Johnson
Read MoreIndia, 1958—euphemistic appellation for verbal or physical sexual harassment of a woman by a man in a public place—refers to Eve, the first woman in the biblical account of the creation of the world, who is seen as a temptress
Read MoreUK, 1967—something or someone that is utterly ineffectual—especially in phrases such as ‘as much use as a chocolate teapot’—variants: ‘chocolate kettle’, ‘chocolate fireplace’ and ‘chocolate fireguard’
Read MoreJapan 1990s—the extreme avoidance of social contact, especially by adolescent males; a person, typically an adolescent male, who avoids social contact—Japanese ‘hikikomori’ is the nominalised stem of the verb ‘hikikomoru’, meaning ‘to withdraw into seclusion’
Read MoreUSA, 1907—the (alleged) form of dementedness, leading to violence, that takes hold of a man who believes that his home has been invaded, or that his family has been violated—coined by attorney Delphin M. Delmas, who defended Harry K. Thaw in his first murder trial
Read MoreUSA, 1986—something intended to divert attention from something more important—refers to the fact that when two male gorillas confront each other, they throw dust in the air to distract one another—popularised, if not coined, by Henry Ross Perot
Read MoreUSA, 1938—unemployment insurance, and, broadly, any benefit paid to someone who is not working
Read MoreUSA—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
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word histories 