‘couldn’t organise a piss-up in a brewery’

13th January 2018.Reading time 6 minutes.

In British slang, the noun ‘piss-up’ denotes ‘a heavy drinking bout’, and the phrase ‘couldn’t organise a piss-up in a brewery’ and variants mean ‘is’, or ‘are’, or ‘am’, ‘incapable of organising the simplest event, task, etc.’—phrase first recorded in 1980.

origin of ‘fat cat’ (wealthy and powerful person)

12th January 2018.Reading time 6 minutes.

Of American-English origin, the slang term fat cat denotes a wealthy, influential person, especially one who is a heavy contributor to a political party or campaign. The earliest occurrence that I have found is from an article published in The Sun (Baltimore, Maryland) of 1 November 1925.

from the trenches of WWI: ‘cootie’ (‘body louse’)

3rd January 2018.Reading time 5 minutes.

from army use on the Western Front during World War One: ‘cootie’, ‘body louse’, ‘cooty’, ‘infested with lice’, ‘coot’, ‘louse’, probably ultimately refer to the aquatic bird called ‘coot’, reputed to be lice-infested

British, U.S. and French soldiers’ slang during WWI

2nd January 2018.Reading time 12 minutes.

some characteristic slang creations of the British, U.S. and French soldiers during World War One, as recorded in ‘Trench Talk’, published in Everybody’s Magazine (New York) of January 1918

‘Zeppelins in a cloud’ (‘sausage and mash’)

1st January 2018.Reading time 3 minutes.

early 20th century—‘Zeppelins in a cloud’ and variants mean ‘sausage and mash’—during World War One, the phrase was used as a manner of disregarding the fear caused by the bombing raids carried out by Zeppelin airships

‘See you later, alligator’ originated in U.S. teenagers’ slang.

29th December 2017.Reading time 10 minutes.

The colloquial see you later, alligator, which originated in American English, is a catchphrase used on parting. The expected response is in, or after, a while, crocodile. The earliest instance that I have found is from Teenagers’ Slang Expressions Are Explained by Columnists, by “Jackie and Jane, Star-Bulletin Teen Columnists”, published in the […]

‘Queer Street’, where people in difficulties reside

23rd December 2017.Reading time 3 minutes.

UK, early 19th century—an imaginary street where people in difficulties, now especially financial ones, are supposed to reside—urban counterpart of ‘Dicky’s meadow’

the cultural background to ‘Welsh rabbit’

19th December 2017.Reading time 10 minutes.

‘Welsh’: used disparagingly by the English to denote inferior things; ‘rabbit’: common dishes were humorously called by the names of superior ones

notes on ‘codswallop’ (‘nonsense’)

15th December 2017.Reading time 5 minutes.

meaning: ‘nonsense’—UK, 1958—unknown origin—perhaps from ‘cod’, denoting a fool, a joke, and ‘wallop’, denoting bumbling clumsiness

origin of ‘vamoose’

9th December 2017.Reading time 6 minutes.

from Spanish ‘vamos’, ‘let us go’—first recorded as ‘vamos’ in ‘Every Night Book; or, Life after Dark’ (London, 1827), by the English author William Clarke