‘mockumentary’: meaning and early occurrences

denotes a film, television programme, etc., which adopts the form of a serious documentary in order to satirise its subject—apparently first used (and perhaps coined) in 1952 by the Canadian television producer Ross McLean

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‘Auntie’: The Times (London newspaper) – the BBC

‘Auntie’: familiarly used to denote a publication, an institution, etc., which is considered to be conservative or staid in style or outlook, or, alternatively, which is viewed with affection—especially applied, in Britain, to the London newspaper The Times and to the BBC

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‘segocia’: meaning and origin

a pal, a mate, a good friend—Ireland, 1917—perhaps an anglicised form of Irish ‘Seo Dhuitse’ (‘Here you are’) or perhaps an anglicised form of French ‘Mon cher gosse’ (‘My dear child’)

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‘doona day’: meanings and origin

Australia, 1996—a day spent in bed in order to restore one’s spirits; an unscheduled extra day’s leave from work, taken to alleviate stress or pressure and sanctioned by one’s employer—from ‘Doona’, a proprietary name for an eiderdown or duvet, hence a generic term for any eiderdown or duvet

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‘barbecue stopper’: meaning and origin

Australia—a controversial current-affairs topic—the image is that such a topic is likely to interrupt a barbecue with loud debate—coined in 2001 by the Australian Prime Minister John Howard during his re-election campaign

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‘cakeage’: meanings and origin

Australia, 1985—Coined after ‘corkage’, the noun ‘cakeage’ denotes, in a restaurant, the cutting and serving of a cake that has been brought in by a customer from off the premises, hence also a charge levied for this service.

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