‘bring your own booze’ | ‘bring your own bottle’
indicates that a place or event is one to which guests may or should bring their own alcoholic drink—UK, 1858—USA, 1910—in early U.S. use, often referred to the prohibition of alcohol
Read MoreTag: sports & games
‘on one’s Jack Jones’: meaning and origin
‘on one’s own’—UK, 1926—‘Jack Jones’ is rhyming slang for ‘alone’, or for ‘own’ in ‘on one’s own’
Read More‘no wucking furries’: meaning and origin
Australia, 1986—used as an assurance that all is fine, or to express one’s agreement or acquiescence—euphemistic alteration, with switching of the initial consonants, of ‘no fucking worries’
Read More‘to put one’s skates on’: meanings and origin
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 More‘taliswoman’: meanings and origin
UK, 1856—a talisman associated with a woman—a woman likened to a talisman, especially a female sports player regarded as the leading representative of her team—alteration of ‘talisman’ with substitution of ‘woman’ for the element ‘‑man’
Read More‘cauliflower ear’ | ‘oreille en chou-fleur’
‘cauliflower ear’ (USA, 1887)—French calque ‘oreille en chou-fleur’ (1913)—an ear permanently deformed as a result of injuries from repeated blows, as in boxing
Read More‘to play a blinder’: meaning—and origin?
to perform outstandingly well—UK, 1902, originally in football: to play an excellent game—the image may be of a footballer whose speed and skill overpower opponents
Read More‘what has that got to do with the price of tea in China?’: meaning and origin
USA, 1930—a rhetorical question calling attention to a non-sequitur or irrelevant statement or suggestion made by another person—one of the phrases built on the pattern ‘what has that got to do with the price of ——?’
Read More‘under the radar’: meaning and origin
USA, 1969—the phrases ‘off the radar’, ‘under the radar’ and ‘below the radar’ are used of something or someone that cannot be detected—the reference is to an aircraft flying too low to be detected by a radar
Read More‘the buck stops here’: meaning and origin
USA, 1929—the final responsibility lies with a particular person—from ‘to pass the buck’—‘buck’: in the game of poker, any object in the jackpot to remind the winner of some obligation when his or her turn comes to deal
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word histories 