the phrase ‘(not) to go gentle into that good night’
USA, 1952—meaning: (not) to give up or acquiesce, especially to death, without a struggle—origin: used as the title of, and in, a poem by Dylan Thomas
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the 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 Moremeanings and origin of ‘beggar my neighbour’
1734: a card game in which one player tries to win all the cards of the other—1802: refers to an advantage gained by one side at the expense of the other
Read Morenotes on various acceptations of the term ‘rat pack’
USA—derogatory appellation for a group of persons—1950 Los Angeles’s gangs of hoodlums—1955 self-designation of a group of Hollywood celebrities
Read Moreorigin and meanings of ‘Ruritania’ and ‘Ruritanian’
from The Prisoner of Zenda (1894), set in the fictional kingdom of Ruritania—UK, 1896: romantic adventure and intrigue; any imaginary or hypothetical country
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘no joy in Mudville’
USA, 1895—a sense of pervasive and shared disappointment—alludes to the defeat of the baseball team of Mudville, a fictional town in E. L. Thayer’s 1888 poem ‘Casey at the Bat’
Read MoreThe term ‘empty suit’ originated in Broadway slang.
1950, Broadway slang, pejorative—a wealthy man who, in return for their company, lavished money on showbusiness people and those mixing with them
Read Moremeanings and history of the term ‘glass jaw’
USA—1904 (boxing) a weak jaw that is easily broken—1914 (allegorical) preceded by the adjective ‘moral’—1931 (figurative) a vulnerable point—synonym: ‘china chin’
Read Moremeaning and origin of ‘the icing’, or ‘the frosting’, ‘on the cake’
something extra that makes a good thing even better—USA 1889 with ‘frosting’, 1896 with ‘icing’—refers to a sugar preparation for coating and decorating cakes
Read Morehistory of the phrase ‘a bowl of cherries’
USA 1931—a highly enjoyable situation or experience—from ‘life is just a bowl of cherries’ 1928—popularised by song ‘Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries’ 1931
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word histories 