‘is your father a glazier?’: meaning and early occurrences
UK, 18th century—addressed to one who stands between the speaker and the light of a window, a lamp, a candle or a fire, or, more generally, to one who obstructs the speaker’s view
Read MoreTag: theatre
‘as camp as a row of tents’: meaning and early occurrences
1951—with pun on the noun ‘camp’ (i.e.: encampment): extremely camp (i.e.: ostentatiously and extravagantly effeminate; deliberately exaggerated and theatrical in style)
Read More‘tennis, anyone?’: meaning and origin
theatre—a typical entrance or exit line given to a young man in a superficial drawing-room comedy—USA 1934—but 1908 in a short story evoking the pastimes of members of the leisured class during a stay at a country house
Read More‘stand and grow good’: meanings and origin
UK, 1862—originally said to children in order that they develop an upright posture—came to be humorously used when declining a proffered seat
Read More‘the (great) god Bingo’: meaning and early occurrences
USA, 1938—UK, 1961—satirical phrase referring to the addiction to bingo, a game in which players mark off numbers on cards as the numbers are drawn randomly by a caller, the winner being the first person to mark off all their numbers
Read Morenotes on the phrase ‘feeding time at the zoo’
UK, 1879—meanings: an undisciplined assault on food and drink, and, by extension, any disorderly but excited scene
Read Morea Pepysian phrase: ‘and so to bed’
phrase popularised by its frequent use in the diary (1659-69) of Samuel Pepys (1633-1703)—not peculiar to him, however, as it was used for example by Philip Massinger in 1624
Read More‘amour fou’: meaning and origin
uncontrollable or obsessive passion—French phrase introduced in the 1960s as a theme of drama, prose narrative and cinema
Read More‘we aim to please (you aim too, please)’
‘we aim to please’ (1817): originally chiefly used as a commercial slogan meaning ‘our customers’ satisfaction is our goal’—extended form ‘we aim to please; you aim too, please’ (1941): used in a variety of contexts
Read More‘Miss Otis regrets’: a recurring phrase
UK 1934 – USA 1935—alludes to a sardonic song by Cole Porter, about the lynching of an upper-class woman after she murders her unfaithful lover
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word histories 