how words and phrases came into existence
denotes extreme quickness of movement—the use of ‘greased’ likens lightning to a machine that a mechanic has lubricated in order to minimise the friction and make it run easily
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Of American-English origin, the phrase life in the fast lane denotes a glamorous or highly pressured lifestyle. It refers to fast lane, meaning a traffic lane, usually that farthest from the outer edge of a motorway or dual carriageway, intended for drivers who wish to overtake slower cars. The earliest figurative use of fast lane […]
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It seems that the American comedian George Jessel (1898-1981) invented the Bloody Mary and named it after Mary Brown Warburton (1896-1937).
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UK—‘a legend in your lifetime’ (1913): allegedly said by Benjamin Jowett to Florence Nightingale—‘a legend in his own lunchtime’ (1969): first recorded in a theatrical review by John Cunningham
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USA, 1947—the leading comic in a burlesque entertainment—also ‘first banana’, in contrast to ‘second banana’ and ‘third banana’
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a Latin-American country that is politically unstable because its economy, controlled by U.S. capital, wholly depends on the export of bananas
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UK, 1852—of a person or thing: irretrievably defunct or out of date—with reference to the extinct bird of Mauritius
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USA, 1940—alert and lively—originated in the conventional image of a healthy, spirited squirrel or other animal
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‘in this day and age’ (‘at the present time’)—USA, 1832—tautology, that is to say, ‘day’ and ‘age’ are synonymous, ‘day’ meaning ‘a period of time’
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USA, 1951—used as a humorous way of recommending someone not to pursue something at which they are unlikely to be successful
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