‘Hob Collingwood’: meaning and early occurrences
in the game of whist: the four of hearts, considered as an unlucky card—southeastern Scotland and northeastern England, early 19th century—origin unknown
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‘clever clogs’: meaning and origin
a person who behaves as if he or she knows everything—UK, colloquial, 1860—the irony of the expression lies in the fact that clogs are mere functional pedestrian objects
Read Morenotes on the nouns ‘woodpushing’ and ‘woodpusher’
‘woodpushing’: chess-playing, draughts-playing—‘woodpusher’: a chess-player, a draughts-player—refers to the wooden pieces that chess-players and draughts-players move across the board
Read More‘hit and hope’: meaning and origin
UK, 1931—sports (originally golf): a style of play characterised by an emphasis on luck rather than skill—the image is of a golfer who trusts to luck when hitting the ball
Read More‘the game is not worth the candle’: meaning and origin
the returns from an activity or undertaking do not warrant the time, money or effort required—calque of French ‘le jeu ne vaut pas la chandelle’—1603, in John Florio’s translation of Montaigne’s Essays
Read More‘Chatty Cathy’: meaning and origin
USA, 1949—a person (originally and chiefly a girl or a woman) who is especially talkative—popularised from 1960 onwards by a proprietary name for a child’s talking doll manufactured by Mattel
Read More‘new kid on the block’: meaning and origin
USA, 1911: a newcomer—but, from 1903 onwards, as ‘new kid in one’s block’: a child who has recently moved into the block where one lives—‘block’: a group of buildings in a city bounded by intersecting streets on each side
Read More‘bed and breakfast’ (verb): meanings and early occurrences
UK, 1883—to stay at a hotel, inn, etc., that provides a bed for the night and breakfast the following morning—to stay at an establishment known as a ‘bed and breakfast’
Read More‘tennis elbow’: meaning and origin
UK, 1881—a form of repetitive strain injury (first identified in tennis players) that affects the tendons of forearm muscles attached to the lateral epicondyle of the humerus—synonym ‘lateral epicondylitis’
Read More‘magic pudding’: meaning, origin and early occurrences
Australia, 1934—an inexhaustible supply of something, especially money—alludes to The Magic Pudding (1918), by Norman Lindsay, in which a pudding instantly renews itself as it is sliced or eaten into
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