“ad fontes!”
to hurry up (1849 in Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield); the image is of a skater gliding rapidly over an ice surface—also, in early use (USA, 1886): to get drunk; the rolling gait of a drunk person is likened to the swaying motion of an ice skater
Read MoreUSA, 1826, as ‘to flog somebody like seven bells’—to give a severe beating to somebody—‘seven’ is perhaps simply an arbitrary intensifier—cf. phrases such as ‘like seven bells half-struck’ (‘with as much speed as possible’) and ‘to blow seven bells’ (‘to blow a violent gale’)
Read Morean intelligence operative, also an intelligence operation—UK, 1966—from ‘sneaky’ (furtive, deceitful) and ‘beaky’ (referring to an overly inquisitive person, with allusion to a prominent nose)
Read MoreAustralia, 1932: to attract unwelcome attention or criticism—originally, WWI slang: to draw artillery fire from the enemy, in reference to crab shells, used with punning allusion to artillery shells
Read MoreAustralia, 1953—to flatter someone or to (seek to) ingratiate oneself with someone, to curry favour with someone—cf. 19th-century British phrase ‘to piss down someone’s back’ (to flatter someone)
Read Morea state of depression or despair—1893—a shift in meaning of the British-English expression ‘blue funk’, denoting a state of extreme nervousness or dread (the original meaning in American English)
Read Morea state of extreme nervousness or dread—UK, mid-19th century—‘blue’ is an intensifier of ‘funk’, denoting a state of extreme nervousness or dread
Read Moreto vomit from drunkenness—U.S. students’ slang, 1980—likens the position of the hands of a person holding onto the sides of a toilet bowl while vomiting therein, to that of a bus driver’s hands holding the steering wheel
Read MoreUK slang—expresses exasperation at a situation or course of action—military, 1941—what ‘game of soldiers’ refers to is unclear
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a person or thing that is insignificant or contemptible—1910—originally (1900): a type of small high-velocity shell, with reference to the high-pitched sound of its discharge and flight
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word histories 