‘scholasticide’: meaning and origin
the systematic destruction of Palestinian education by Israel—apparently coined in 2009 by Karma Nabulsi, Fellow in Politics at St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford
Read MoreTag: United Kingdom
‘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
Read More‘corridor care’ and ‘corridor nursing’: meaning and origin
Ireland, 1989—treatment given to hospital patients in overcrowded and inappropriate spaces such as corridors and waiting rooms—had been used earlier (UK, 1980) of treatment given to schoolchildren
Read More‘fish and chips’: meaning and origin
a dish consisting of deep-fried battered fish fillets served with potato chips—Lancashire, England, 1886 (1879, as ‘fried fish and chipped potatoes’)
Read More‘Kleenex music’: meanings and origin
1962: a type of popular music that is rapidly discarded—also, 1967: Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, regarded as a lachrymose piece of music by Igor Stravinsky—‘Kleenex’: a proprietary name for a soft, disposable paper tissue
Read More‘not on your nelly’: meaning and origin
‘not under any circumstances’—Royal Air Force slang, 1942—short for ‘not on your Nelly Duff’, i.e., ‘not on your life’, ‘Nelly Duff’ being rhyming slang for ‘puff’ as used colloquially in the sense of ‘life’
Read Morea slang use of ‘muslin’ (women)
UK, 1821—‘muslin’: women regarded collectively as objects of sexual desire—‘a bit of muslin’: a woman regarded as an object of sexual desire
Read More‘bundle of nerves’: meaning and origin
someone who is extremely nervous, worried or tense—UK, 1832—originally (18th century) in physiology: a set of nervous fibres bound closely together
Read More‘serial liar’: meaning and origin
USA, 1985—an inveterate liar—coined after, and in reference to, the expressions ‘serial killer’ and ‘serial murderer’
Read More‘baking hot’: meaning and origin
UK, 1833—the expression ‘baking hot’ is used of excessive heat—in this expression, the adverb ‘baking’ is an intensifier
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