the melodramatic origin of ‘cloak-and-dagger’
possibly from ‘cloak and sword’, from Spanish ‘(comedia) de capa y espada’, a type of dramas in which the main characters wore cloaks and swords or daggers
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the Cantabrigian origin of ‘wooden spoon’
originally, at Cambridge University: oversized wooden spoon given to the candidate coming last in the mathematical tripos (BA-degree final honours examination)
Read Moreorigin of ‘to take the cake’ and ‘to take the biscuit’
‘take the cake’ (US, 1839) alludes probably to cake as the prize in a contest, but maybe not to cakewalk—‘take the biscuit’ (US, 1879) used in British English
Read Morethe liturgical origin of ‘Quasimodo’
in full ‘Quasimodo Sunday’: the Sunday after Easter—from the opening words of the Latin introit for that day, ‘quasimodo geniti infantes’, ‘as newborn babies’
Read More‘to take the mickey out of someone’: meaning and origin
UK, 1891—‘to take the mickey (or ‘the mike’) out of’: ‘to tease or ridicule’—probably after ‘Mickey (or ‘Mike’) Bliss’, rhyming slang for ‘piss’
Read Moreorigin of ‘it takes two to tango’
both parties involved in a situation or argument are equally responsible for it—USA, 1952—from ‘Takes Two to Tango’ (1952), a song by Hoffman and Manning
Read Morethe various uses of ‘out of one’s skull’
USA—‘not part of a particular exclusive group’, 1955—‘out of one’s mind’, 1958—‘smashed out of one’s skull’ (= ‘drunk’, 1963)—‘bored out of one’s skull’, 1967
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘to a T’
‘with minute exactness’—UK, 1693—probably a shortening of synonymous ‘to a tittle’ (1607), ‘tittle’ meaning ‘a small mark used in writing or printing’
Read Moreorigin of the British phrase ‘—— rule(s) OK’
UK, 1971, in graffiti—preceded by a proper or common noun in the singular or plural; used to assert the pre-eminence of a specified person or thing
Read Moreorigin of ‘blanket’ and of phrases containing ‘blanket’
‘blanket’: from Old-Northern-French and Anglo-Norman forms such as ‘blankete’ (white woollen material), composed of ‘blanc’ (white) and the diminutive suffix ‘-ette’
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