“ad fontes!”
a picture conveys far more than words—USA, 1877, as ‘a picture tells more than printed words’—from 1866 to 1876 the notion had been used with specific reference to pictures by the cartoonist Thomas Nast
Read MoreUK, 1884—‘what a surprise!’—a borrowing from French—chiefly used ironically, to imply that a situation or event is unsurprising, typical or predictable
Read Morea celebration for a woman who is about to get married, attended by her female friends and relations—UK, 1987—first used in relation to Stags and Hens (1978), a stage play by William Russell
Read MoreUK, 1924, as ‘cameo part’, used of two small roles in Shakespeare’s Julius Cæsar
Read MoreFrench, 1848; English, 1861—a small, oblong cake made of choux pastry, filled with cream, and typically topped with chocolate icing—literally ‘lightning’—origin unknown
Read MoreUK, 1935—jocular—is used by a man to defer his sexual duties to a wife or lover; is also applied to any postponement—translation of the earlier phrase ‘not tonight, Josephine’
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USA, 1904—a jocular phrase apparently originally applied to any postponement—of unknown origin
Read MoreUSA, 1927: a woman with a silvery-blonde hair colour—USA, 1930: specifically applied to Jean Harlow—also (USA, 1927) ‘platinum’: a silvery-blonde hair colour
Read MoreUSA & UK, 1995—to take a pregnancy test of a type involving urinating on a disposable plastic stick which immediately indicates the result—also, more generally: to take any of various other diagnostic tests of this type
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UK, 1869—a mechanised full-size model of a bull, simulating the movement and behaviour of a bull (particularly in a corrida), used in public entertainments
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word histories 