Tag: United Kingdom

‘frontstabbing’: meaning and origin

.Reading time 8 minutes.

Ireland, 1914—the action or practice of attacking, or acting against, someone in a candid or open manner, as opposed to deceptively or duplicitously—coined after ‘backstabbing’ (i.e., the action or practice of attacking, or acting against, someone in a treacherous or underhand manner)

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additional notes on ‘Hobson’s choice’

.Reading time 9 minutes.

an early account of a forced choice from a number of horses, associated with William Hobson (died 1581), a London haberdasher—itself adapted from earlier accounts, in which the main protagonist remained unnamed

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‘chumocracy’: meaning and origin

.Reading time 10 minutes.

chiefly UK politics—a culture characterised by influential networks of close friends—from ‘chum’ (a close friend) and ‘‑ocracy’ (forming nouns designating forms of government or groups who exercise political or social power)

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‘to knock seven bells out of somebody’: meaning—and origin?

.Reading time 16 minutes.

USA, 1826, as ‘to flog somebody like seven bells’—to give a severe beating to somebody—‘seven’ is perhaps simply an arbitrary intensifier—cf. phrases such as ‘like seven bells half-struck’ (‘with as much speed as possible’) and ‘to blow seven bells’ (‘to blow a violent gale’)

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‘to embiggen’: meaning and origin

.Reading time 7 minutes.

to make bigger or greater, to enlarge—UK, 1884, as a translation of ancient Greek ‘μεγαλύνειν’ as used in the Acts of the Apostles, 5:13—recoined in 1996 in the U.S. animated television series The Simpsons

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‘sneaky-beaky’: meaning and origin

.Reading time 15 minutes.

an intelligence operative, also an intelligence operation—UK, 1966—from ‘sneaky’ (furtive, deceitful) and ‘beaky’ (referring to an overly inquisitive person, with allusion to a prominent nose)

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