“ad fontes!”
USA, 1901—wonderfully stylish, elegant or fashionable—a blend of ‘swell’ and ‘elegant’—popularised by its use in the song Well, Did You Evah!, interpreted by Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra in the 1956 film High Society
Read Moreislands of the South Pacific, 1881—cattle, beef, and, by extension, meat of any kind and tinned meat—a combination of the nouns ‘bull’ and ‘cow’
Read MoreUK, 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
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USA, 1999—unfashionable or socially awkward in a way regarded as appealing or endearing—blend of ‘adorable’ and ‘dork’—the noun ‘dork’ denotes an odd, socially awkward, unstylish person
Read MoreUSA, 1943—nonsensical or absurd talk or ideas concerning global issues—blend of ‘global’ and ‘baloney’—coined by Clare Boothe Luce in her maiden speech to the House of Representatives
Read MoreUSA, 1992—to reduce staff numbers to levels so low that work can no longer be carried out effectively—portmanteau, coined by the Trends Research Institute, combining the adjective ‘dumb’, meaning ‘stupid’, and the verb ‘downsize’
Read More‘shopaholic’ (USA, 1972): a blend of ‘shop’ and ‘alcoholic’; designates a compulsive shopper—‘shopaholism’ (USA, 1983): denotes the state or fact of being a compulsive shopper
Read Moredenotes a holiday spent at home or in one’s country of residence—USA, 1944—a blend of ‘stay’ and ‘vacation’
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USA—blend of ‘screen’ and ‘teenager’—(1957) teenagers reacting to a movie—(1985) teenagers as represented by TV and cinema
Read MoreUSA, 1931—presented as being of French origin, but French earliest known uses, in 1933, are from American English
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word histories 