“ad fontes!”
USA, 1795—Probably a blend of ‘irrespective’ and ‘regardless’, ‘irregardless’ means the same as ‘regardless’. It is regarded as incorrect in standard English, because the negative prefix ‘ir-’ merely duplicates the suffix ‘-less’, and is therefore unnecessary.
Read MoreThe original meaning of beer o’clock is 5 p.m. as the end of the working day. Its first known user was Stephen King (born 1947), American author of novels of horror and suspense.
Read MoreUK, 1891—‘to take the mickey (or ‘the mike’) out of’: ‘to tease or ridicule’—probably after ‘Mickey (or ‘Mike’) Bliss’, rhyming slang for ‘piss’
Read MoreLiterally denoting a mouse which lives in a church, the noun church mouse has long been used figuratively and allusively of a person likened to such a mouse, in terms of its proverbial attributes, especially in being impoverished or quiet. For example, the Anglo-Welsh historian and political writer James Howell (circa 1594-1666) recorded the following […]
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The term human bean is a humorous alteration or mispronunciation of human being, frequently used as part of an extended pun relating to beans. It is first recorded in Punch, or The London Charivari (1842): This little wretch is exciting the most intense interest, (Faugh!) and we have bribed the authorities in all directions to obtain information regarding him. It […]
Read MoreUSA, 1881—seems to have originated in the image of a torchlit procession or/and of a firework display that illuminate(s) a town
Read MoreThe phrase caviar to the general is used to denote a good thing unappreciated by the ignorant (here, the general refers to the multitude). It is from The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke (between 1599 and 1602), by the English poet and playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616): (Quarto 2, 1604) – Hamlet: Come giue vs a tast of your quality, come […]
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Old York: the Shambles – illustration by Charles G. Harper for his book The Great North Road: The Old Mail Road to Scotland: York to Edinburgh (1901) (The pavements are raised either side of the cobbled street to form a channel where the butchers would wash away the offal and blood.) MEANING […]
Read MoreIn the phrase ‘in Dicky’s meadow’, which means ‘in trouble’, the first element is an alteration of ‘dicky’, meaning ‘hazardous’, ‘critical’.
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