‘soccer mom’: meaning and origin

4th Aug 2022.Reading time 12 minutes.

USA, 1973—a suburban mother who spends a lot of time taking her children to play soccer or engage in similar activities—popularised during the presidential election campaign of 1996 as designating an influential voting bloc

‘if it should rain pottage, he would want his dish’ and variants

25th Jul 2022.Reading time 13 minutes.

The proverbial phrase ‘if it should rain pottage, he would want his dish’, and its many variants, are used of a person who is characterised by bad luck or by an inability to be organised or prepared.

‘Socceroo’: meaning and origin

23rd Jul 2022.Reading time 5 minutes.

(plural) the Australian men’s national soccer team; (singular) a member of this team—originated in 1972 as the name of the mascot of the Australian men’s national soccer team, created for the 1974 FIFA World Cup

‘the sharpest —— in the ——’: meaning and early occurrences

22nd Jul 2022.Reading time 12 minutes.

The adjective ‘sharp’ is colloquially used in the superlative, in various phrases of the form ‘not the sharpest —— in the ——’, indicating that a person is not very intelligent or perceptive, especially in comparison to others.

‘Pharaoh’s Revenge’: meaning and origin

19th Jul 2022.Reading time 9 minutes.

diarrhoea suffered by travellers, especially in Egypt—USA, 1973—does not seem to have been coined after the synonymous ‘Montezuma’s Revenge’—may somehow allude to the legendary curse of the pharaohs

‘(as) mad as a (cut) snake’: meaning and origin

11th Jul 2022.Reading time 15 minutes.

out of one’s mind, extremely annoyed—Australia, 1900; New Zealand, 1907—originally as ‘(as) mad as a snake’, ‘(as) mad as snakes’ and variants—later as ‘(as) mad as a cut snake’

Australian terms referring to left-handedness

9th Jul 2022.Reading time 15 minutes.

left-handed: ‘molly-handed’, ‘mauldy’, ‘molly-dooked’—a left-handed person: ‘molly-hander’, ‘mauldy’, ‘molly-dook’—‘molly’ and ‘mauldy’ may derive from ‘mauley’, denoting the hand or fist; ‘dook’ is ‘duke’, denoting the hand or fist

‘a car crash in slow motion’: meaning and origin

6th Jul 2022.Reading time 6 minutes.

a chaotic or disastrous situation that holds a ghoulish fascination for observers—UK, 1980, as ‘like viewing a car crash in slow motion’—USA, 1991, used without ‘like’ by George Colony, president of Forrester Research

‘he must have killed a Chinaman’: meaning and origin

5th Jul 2022.Reading time 11 minutes.

Australia, 1885; New Zealand, 1894—indicates that a person is suffering from bad luck—the implication is that this bad luck is punishment for a crime committed by the person

‘dinnyhayser’: meanings (and origin?)

2nd Jul 2022.Reading time 13 minutes.

Australia, 1878—a knockout blow; anything of exceptional size or force—allegedly alludes to a boxer called Dinny Hayes—but no evidence supports this allegation

word histories

Tag: sports & games