“ad fontes!”
USA, 1888—at variance/in line with the (likely) thought, practice or judgement of the future; at odds/coincident with how commentators view (or are likely to view) an issue or action retrospectively
Read MoreU.S. slang, 1986—a march into or out of a police car, courthouse, etc., that a person in police custody is made to perform for the benefit of the news media—‘perp’: shortening of ‘perpetrator’
Read MoreUK, 1822—a vituperative gossip, a scandalmonger; an evil or malicious tongue—a borrowing from French ‘mauvaise langue’ (literally ‘bad tongue’) of same significations
Read More1687—a lengthy and tedious reprimand—from the verb ‘job’ (1666), meaning: to reprimand in a long and tedious harangue—with allusion to the lengthy reproofs addressed to Job by his friends in the Book of Job
Read Morelate 18th century, in the context of piracy: to walk along a plank placed over the side of a ship until one falls into the sea—hence, figuratively, early 19th century: to be forced to resign from one’s office or position
Read Morethe earliest occurrences of ‘feet of clay’, used without explicit reference to the Bible, date from the French Revolution (1789-1799) and translate French ‘pieds d’argile’
Read Morenonsense, rubbish—USA, first decade of the 20th century—probably a euphemism for the noun ‘bullshit’, with the noun ‘dust’ used in the sense of ‘rubbish’, ‘garbage’
Read MoreUSA, 1867—all over the place, in disarray—perhaps originally used by cattlemen of mobs of cattle all over the place
Read MoreUSA, 1913—an extremely large area—the second half of this phrase varies, in particular according to the speaker’s locality
Read Morerefers to a person who is ignorant or dismissive of the hardships of others—alludes to the phrase “let them eat cake”, attributed to Marie Antoinette, wife of King of France Louis XVI
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