“ad fontes!”
to engage in pointless or futile activity in the face of disaster—USA, 1969—apparently first used, and perhaps coined, by Elizabeth Carpenter, press secretary for the wife of President Lyndon B. Johnson
Read MoreUSA, early 1930s—adjectives—‘little-girl-lost’: resembling (that of) a small girl who has lost her way—‘little-boy-lost’: resembling (that of) a small boy who has lost his way
Read More‘stop talking (and get to the heart of the matter)’—UK, 1878—said to have been coined by circus proprietor Andrew Ducrow when apostrophising equestrian performers
Read MoreAustralia, 1970—as a noun and as a verb, refers to a high-speed drive in a motor vehicle—from the surname of the Argentinian motor-racing driver Juan Manuel Fangio
Read More(UK, 1775): a dance blindfold among eggs—hence, figuratively (UK, 1856): an intricate and difficult task—also used as a verb
Read Moreconventionally middle-class—UK, 1953—from ‘Mrs Dale’, the name of a conventional middle-class woman in Mrs Dale’s Diary, a BBC radio serial broadcast from 1948 to 1969
Read MoreUSA, 1982—characteristic, reminiscent or imitative of the films or television work of the U.S. filmmaker David Lynch (1946-2025)—also ‘Lynchean’, ‘David-Lynchian’ and ‘David-Lynchean’
Read More1901—a look inviting sexual interest—hence, the adjective ‘bedroom-eyed’ (1925), which means: giving a look inviting sexual interest
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UK, 1916—a scrawny girl or woman—may have originated in the title of a successful song (and in the name of an equally popular character) created in 1911 by the comedienne Lily Long
Read Moreimpressively or shockingly big—a blend of ‘gigantic’ and ‘enormous’—apparently coined by Welsh novelist Berta Ruck in Wedding March (1938)
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word histories 