history of the phrase ‘(it) takes one to know one’
USA, 1926—only a person with a given personality, characteristic, etc., is able to identify that quality in someone else—particularly used of homosexuals
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history of the British name ‘Lobby Lud’
1927—a mystery man The Westminster Gazette’s readers were challenged to identify in order to claim prize money—‘Lobby Lud’: the Gazette’s telegraphic address
Read Morenotes on the phrase ‘a licence to print money’
North America, 1943: used of owners of professional baseball teams—Britain, 1958: used of the franchises granted for running commercial television stations
Read Morethe phrase ‘muscles like sparrows’ kneecaps’
UK, 1922—(self-)disparagingly used of somebody’s physical strength—sometimes as a parody of ‘The Village Blacksmith’ (1840), by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘down the Swanee’
UK, 1926—completely lost or wasted—seems to allude to ‘Old Folks at Home’ (1851), also known as ‘Swanee River’, by the U.S. songwriter Stephen Foster
Read Moremeaning and origin of ‘back to square one’
UK, 1952—back to where one started, with no progress having been made—refers to the game of snakes and ladders
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘not to know — from a bar of soap’
to be completely unacquainted with someone or something—most earliest uses (late 19th century) in U.S. publications, but a few in Australian publications
Read Morethe Australian phrase ‘to kill a brown dog’: meanings, origin
1950—used of a substance causing death or illness, and by extension of something powerful or disastrous—refers to red kelpie sheep dogs, who can ingest anything
Read Moremeanings of the British phrase ‘vicarage tea-party’
20th century—denotes something mild, innocuous or uneventful—but those notions have been associated with vicarage tea-parties since the 19th century
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘Punch’s advice—don’t’
from “advice to persons about to marry—don’t”, published in ‘Punch’s Almanack for 1845’ (24 December 1844) by the magazine ‘Punch, or the London Charivari’
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word histories 