“ad fontes!”
Britain, 1747: dew of the kind that settles on mountains—Scotland, 1816: whisky or other spirit, especially when home-made or illicit (originally in reference to whisky distilled in the Highlands, i.e., in the mountainous region of Scotland)
Read MoreUK, 1817—a blank book in which pictures, newspaper cuttings, and the like are pasted for preservation—hence also (UK, 1821) used as the title of a printed book of miscellaneous contents
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a time at which it is considered acceptable or sociable to start drinking beer—used of various times of the day—USA, 1910
Read MoreBritish, dialectal, 1828: the break of day, i.e., the dawn chorus, with humorous allusion to a small passerine breaking wind—later also: an insignificant person or thing
Read MoreUK, late 1980s—the adverb ‘o’clock’ is colloquially and humorously used with adjectives to denote an unreasonably, excessively or inconveniently early or late hour—as in ‘stupid o’clock’, ‘silly o’clock’, etc.
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USA, 2001—a glamorous grandmother, especially one who is relatively young or fashion-conscious—a blend of the nouns ‘glamour’ and ‘grandma’
Read MoreUK, 1759: first applied to Japan—1794 (during the French Revolution): the disparaging use in reference to Britain was popularised by the French phrase ‘nation boutiquière’
Read MoreUK, 1945—upper-class slang for ‘champagne’—from the first syllable of ‘champagne’ and the suffix ‘-ers’, used to make jocular formations on nouns by clipping them
Read MoreBritain, 1782—to evoke or recreate a previous time, state or condition; to make it seem as if no time has passed
Read Moreone who sews up wounds, i.e., a surgeon—also, in later use, a plastic surgeon—first recorded in ’Tis Pitty Shee’s a Whore (1633), by the English playwright John Ford
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