‘panda’ (as applied to a police patrol car)
UK, 1966—a police patrol car having a broad white stripe painted on a dark background—alludes to the black-and-white fur of the giant panda
Read MoreTag: United Kingdom
‘panda’ (as applied to a pedestrian crossing)
UK, 1962—a type of pedestrian crossing distinguished by black-and-white chevrons marked on the road, and having traffic warning lights activated by people wishing to cross—alludes to the black-and-white fur of the giant panda
Read More‘winter of discontent’ (as applied to the winter of 1978-79 in Britain)
has been used since September 1978 to denote the winter of 1978-79 in the United Kingdom, during which widespread strikes took place in protest against the then Labour government’s wage limits
Read More‘Morrison hour’: meaning and origin
UK, 1949—an extra hour added to the end of a prison officer’s working day—from the fact that this extra hour was introduced during WWII by Herbert Stanley Morrison, Secretary of State for Home Affairs and Home Security
Read More‘sunlit uplands’ (as applied to post-Brexit Britain)
The phrase ‘sunlit uplands’ denotes an idealised or longed-for future time of happiness, prosperity, good fortune, etc. Popularised by Winston Churchill in 1940, this phrase has been associated with the bright future that Brexit was supposed to usher in.
Read More‘windfall tax’: meaning and origin
a tax levied on an unforeseen or unexpectedly large profit, especially a profit that is considered to be excessive or unfairly obtained—UK, 1909—apparently coined by the British economist Arthur Cecil Pigou
Read More‘shopping trolley’ (as applied to Boris Johnson)
UK—used by Dominic Cummings, from the fact that Johnson is indecisive and veers all over the place on policy—but first used in 2016 by Johnson to refer to himself—however, the image of the shopping trolley is older in British politics
Read More‘nom de disc’: meaning and origin
an assumed name under which a person records a disc—UK, 1931—coined on the pattern of phrases such as ‘nom de théâtre’ and ‘nom de plume’
Read More‘garbageology’ | ‘garbageologist’: original meanings and early occurrences
originally used in 1940 in reference to refuse collection—came to be used in 1970 in reference to the recycling of waste materials—then in 1971 in reference to the practice of looking through the garbage of celebrities
Read More‘garbology’: original meaning and oddities
the collection of domestic refuse—USA, 1965—from ‘garb-’ in ‘garbage’, and the combining form ‘-ology’—two oddities: UK, 1914, obscure sense (from ‘garb’, i.e., clothing), and USA, 1944, in the sense of silly terminology
Read More
word histories 