‘a fart in a spacesuit’: meaning and origin
UK, 1980—denotes someone or something that is unwelcome, unpopular, etc.—first recorded in a remark by the Scottish comedian Billy Connolly, but perhaps originated in Royal-Navy slang
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‘alcoholiday’: meaning and origin
UK, 1877—humorous: a holiday or period of leisure spent drinking alcoholic liquor—blend of the nouns ‘alcohol’ and ‘holiday’—has, in the course of time, been coined on separate occasions by various persons, independently from one another
Read More‘queue-jump’, ‘to jump the queue’: meanings and early occurrences
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
Read Morenotes on ‘Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office’
UK, 1997—the title given to the official resident cat of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at 10 Downing Street, London—‘mouser’, first recorded circa 1440, denotes an animal that catches mice
Read More‘another brick in the wall’: meanings and origin
a small component of a much larger structure, system or process; an insignificant individual within a large population or community—commonly associated with ‘Another Brick in the Wall’, the title of a three-part composition by the British band Pink Floyd in their 1979 rock opera ‘The Wall’, but has been used since 1867
Read Moreorigin of ‘how are you off for soap?’
UK, 1816—a meaningless bantering phrase—originated in a print published in June, satirising the fact that a bill on additional taxation on soap had been brought in unobtrusively in May by the Chancellor of the Exchequer
Read More‘in mothballs’ | ‘out of mothballs’
USA—‘in mothballs’ (1892): in a state or period of inactivity, disuse, reserve, storage or postponement—‘out of mothballs’ (1905): back into activity, into use
Read More‘motherhood and apple pie’: meaning and origin
USA, 1956—denotes a core principle, value, belief, characteristic, aspect, etc., of the U.S.A. or its citizens—more generally, the nouns ‘motherhood’ and ‘apple pie’ have been juxtaposed in enumerations of things and persons exemplifying U.S. values
Read More‘the men in (the) white coats’: meaning and origin
USA, 1936—psychiatrists or psychiatric workers—refers to the traditional use of white coats by medical personnel—often used in the stereotypical image of a mentally-disordered person being borne away to a psychiatric hospital by psychiatric workers
Read More‘mare nostrum’: meanings and origin
classical Latin ‘mare nostrum’, literally ‘our sea’: one of the names given by the Romans to the Mediterranean Sea—USA, 1824: any sea or other stretch of water belonging to, or under the control of, a nation
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