‘gelotometre’: meaning and origin
a notional laughter gauge—UK, 1828, coined by Walter Savage Landor—from ancient Greek ‘γέλωτ-’(i.e., ‘gélōt-’), meaning laughter, and the suffix ‘-metre’, forming nouns designating measuring instruments
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‘one might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb’: meaning and origin
if the punishment for a minor wrongdoing is to be the same as for a major one, there is no reason for not committing the greater offence—1678 in a collection of proverbs
Read More‘whingebag’: meaning and origin
a person who habitually complains or whines—UK, 1985—one of the compounds in which the second element ‘bag’ denotes a person displaying the undesirable quality denoted by the first element
Read More‘Froggy-land’: meaning and origin
UK, 19th century—a humorous appellation for France—from the noun ‘Froggy’, designating a French person—but ‘froggy land’, with lower-case initials, was originally used of any wetland
Read More‘to shock the bourgeois’: meaning and origin
to shake or shock traditional ethical and/or artistic middle-class attitudes—UK, 1874—perhaps a loan translation from French ‘choquer le(s) bourgeois’—France, 1858
Read More‘épater le(s) bourgeois’: meaning and origin
to shake or shock traditional ethical and/or artistic middle-class attitudes—UK, 1882—a borrowing from French—France, 1854
Read More‘the green fairy’: meaning and origin
absinthe—UK, 1882—loan translation from French ‘la fée verte’ (1864)—‘fée’ refers to the potency of absinthe, which induces an altered state of consciousness
Read More‘to have a canary’: meaning and origin
chiefly Irish—to lose one’s composure, to be extremely upset—UK, 1970—probably a humorous play on ‘to have a coronary’ (i.e., to have a heart attack)
Read More‘the cream of the crop’: meaning and origin
the best produce from a harvest—hence: the best of a group of people or things—UK, 1828—from ‘cream’ (i.e., the most excellent element or part)
Read More‘one’s heart rules one’s head’: meaning and early occurrences
USA, 1836—one is governed by one’s feelings rather than by rational or practical considerations
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