satirical of British insularity (describes Continental Europe as being cut off from the British Isles)—UK 1930, USA 1931—allegedly originated in a newspaper headline, but this is probably apocryphal
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USA, 1893—the phrase ‘teeth like stars’ is applied to false teeth, the image being that they ‘come out’ at night
Read Moreapplied to someone who will drink anything—UK, 1790—from the tale of the sailor(s) who stole spirits from the cask in which a dead Admiral was being preserved for interment in England
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I’m tired of life (but intended serio-ironically, not in genuine despair)—USA 1951, UK 1956—popularised by ‘Stop the World—I Want to Get Off’, a 1961 British musical
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a jibe at a man wearing trousers with turn-ups—USA, 1885—from an anecdote about a man who was affecting the manners and eccentricities of upper-class English people
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21st century: the practice of maintaining a certain distance between oneself and other people in order to prevent infection with a disease—20th century: the practice of maintaining a degree of remoteness or emotional separation from another person or social group
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exceedingly busy—USA, 1906—chiefly in the extended form ‘as busy as a one-armed paper hanger with the hives’
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USA, 1931—jocular variant (coined on separate occasions by various persons, independently from one another) of ‘here today (and) gone tomorrow’
Read More‘anything for a quiet wife’ (1875)—jocular variant of ‘anything for a quiet life’ (ca. 1620), which expresses concession or resigned agreement, to ensure one is not disturbed
Read Moreto praise oneself—first used by Benjamin Franklin in 1729—the image is that, when one’s trumpeter is dead, one is forced to find one’s own trumpet
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