‘old boy network’: meaning and origin
UK, 1950, as ‘old boy net’—a system of favouritism and preferment operating among people of a similar social, usually privileged, background, especially among former pupils of public schools
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‘Tory-lite’: meanings and origin
UK, 1995—a derogatory designation of New Labour, i.e., a right-wing/social democratic trend in Labour thinking and policy, advocated by Tony Blair—‘Tory’: the British Conservative Party; ‘lite’ (phonetic respelling of the adjective ‘light’): a moderated version of something
Read Morenotes on ‘Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office’
UK, 1997—the title given to the official resident cat of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at 10 Downing Street, London—‘mouser’, first recorded circa 1440, denotes an animal that catches mice
Read Moremeaning and origin of ‘up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire’
‘upstairs to bed’—UK, 1923: title of a song by Nixon Grey—‘Bedfordshire’ jocular extension of ‘bed’ (1665)—‘the wooden hill’ metaphor for ‘the stairs’ (1856)
Read Moresome British uses of ‘the enemy within’
a threat within a community, nation, etc., as distinct from an external enemy—infamously used of British miners’ leaders by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1984
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word histories 