‘bag of hammers’: meanings and origin
American English, 1874—used in particular of stupidity, as in ‘dumb as a bag of hammers’ and variants—the underlying notion is probably that anything is dumb that does all the hard work
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‘mountain dew’: meanings and origin
Britain, 1747: dew of the kind that settles on mountains—Scotland, 1816: whisky or other spirit, especially when home-made or illicit (originally in reference to whisky distilled in the Highlands, i.e., in the mountainous region of Scotland)
Read Moreadditional notes on ‘beer o’clock’
a time at which it is considered acceptable or sociable to start drinking beer—used of various times of the day—USA, 1910
Read More‘to put a bomb under (a person or thing)’: meaning and origin
to disrupt; to shake up; to rouse to action—USA, 1902
Read More‘penny puzzle’ (sausage): origin and early occurrences
UK, 1882—‘penny’ refers to inexpensiveness, and ‘puzzle’ to the mysterious nature of the ingredients—perhaps also in humorous allusion to ‘penny puzzle’ in the sense of a puzzle-card sold on the street for one penny
Read More‘to get one’s panties in a bunch’: meaning and origin
also ‘in a wad’, ‘in a knot’, etc.—to become unduly agitated or angry—the plural noun ‘panties’ refers to short underpants worn by women or girls—American English, 1975
Read More‘to put on a bit of pudding’: meaning and origin
Australia, 1957—to gain weight around one’s middle
Read More‘clerk of the weather’: meaning and origin
UK, 1812—an imaginary functionary humorously supposed to control the state of the weather—also ‘clerk of the weather office’
Read More‘goofy foot’: meaning and origin
one who rides a surfboard with the right foot forward instead of the left—USA, 1960 (as a verb)—here, ‘goofy’ seems to be related to prejudice against left-handedness and left-footedness
Read More‘crosswordese’: meaning and origin
the style of language considered characteristic of crossword clues or solutions—USA, 1925—from the noun ‘crossword’ and the suffix ‘-ese’, forming nouns designating the style of language considered characteristic of the first element
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