‘to recharge one’s batteries’: meaning and origin
USA, 1890—to regain one’s energy by resting after a period of exertion—the image is of restoring an electric charge to a battery
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‘to charge like the Light Brigade’: origin and various meanings
alludes to a British cavalry charge in 1854 during the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War—the phrase has had a variety of meanings, depending on the acceptation in which ‘charge’ has been used
Read More‘why is a mouse when it spins? because the higher the fewer’
nonsensical question and answer—UK 1892—USA 1893—the question has been used to treat someone or something as unworthy of serious consideration
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 Moremeanings and origin of the British phrase ‘(dark) satanic mills’
UK, 1913—industrial mills—working places characterised by dehumanising forms of labour—from ‘And did those feet in ancient time’, by the English poet William Blake
Read Morethe phrase ‘the face that launched a thousand ships’
an extremely beautiful woman—alludes to the description of Helen of Troy in Christopher Marlowe’s ‘Doctor Faustus’—has given rise to countless adaptations
Read Moremeaning and origin of ‘red in tooth and claw’
UK, 1857—characterised by savage violence or merciless competition—from Alfred Tennyson’s poem ‘In Memoriam’ (1850), in which ‘red in tooth and claw’ refers to Nature’s brutality
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘rift in the lute’
L’astucieuse Viviane était étendue aux pieds de Merlin, by Gustave Doré (1832-1883) from Les Idylles du roi (Paris – 1868), translation of Idylls of the King by Alfred Tennyson The phrase rift in the lute means sign of disharmony between persons, especially the first evidence of a quarrel that may become worse. A rift is a crack in an object, […]
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