origin of ‘all right, you heard a seal bark’
refers to “All right, have it your own way—you heard a seal bark”, the caption to a drawing by James Thurber, originally published in The New Yorker of 30th January 1932
Read MoreTag: politics
‘thrown out of better places than this’: meaning and early occurrences
USA, 1909—a derogatory description of a specific place or occupation, typically used by somebody who is getting expelled from this specific place or occupation
Read More‘stand and grow good’: meanings and origin
UK, 1862—originally said to children in order that they develop an upright posture—came to be humorously used when declining a proffered seat
Read More‘kiss cam’: meaning and early occurrences
a live video feed in a sports arena showing images of selected couples in the audience in the expectation that they will kiss—USA and Canada, 2001
Read More‘all duck or no dinner’: meaning and origin
all or nothing—Australia, 1895—the image is of a dinner composed entirely of duck, i.e. of choice food, as opposed to no dinner at all
Read More‘call me anything, so long as you don’t call me late to dinner’
USA, 1833—jocular phrase meaning that the speaker does not care what he is being called—a U.S. and Australian variant uses ‘breakfast’ instead of ‘dinner’
Read More‘your mother wears army boots’: meaning, origin (?), and early occurrences
USA, 1947—a mild insult perhaps alluding to impecuniousness—seems to have originated amongst teenagers and young adults
Read More‘coming? so is Christmas!’: meanings and history
UK, early 18th century—addressed to one who, saying ‘coming!’ (i.e., ‘in a minute’), takes a long time to arrive—used by extension of anything that is being delayed
Read More‘bang went sixpence’: origin and early occurrences
UK, 1870—based on the stereotype of Scots being miserly—from the story of the Scotsman who complained that he had to spend, in London, the small sum of sixpence
Read Morea punning phrase: ‘I see, said the blind man’
USA, 1830—used in association with ‘see’, ‘said the blind man’ puns on this verb’s primary meaning (‘to perceive with the eyes’) and secondary meanings (‘to understand’, ‘to find out’, ‘to examine’)
Read More
word histories 