‘loony bin’: meaning and origin
1913 and 1921 in stories by English author P. G. Wodehouse—a facetious appellation for a home or hospital for people with mental illnesses—‘loony’: shortened form of ‘lunatic’
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‘when push comes to shove’: meaning and origin
USA, 1889—when a situation reaches a critical point and one must commit oneself to an action or decision—the image is of having to shove when mere pushing is ineffective
Read More‘Siberian Express’: meaning and origin
American English—a surge of extremely cold air which causes rapid falls in temperature and severe wintry weather in central and eastern areas of the United States and Canada—after ‘Trans-Siberian Express’, the name of a railway running from Moscow to Vladivostok on the Sea of Japan
Read More‘to nail one’s colours to the mast’: meanings and origin
UK, 1808—to make one’s beliefs or intentions plain—from the former practice of nailing an ensign to the mast of a ship, after damage during battle resulted in the ship’s colours no longer being clearly displayed, which otherwise might have been interpreted as a signal of surrender
Read More‘cold turkey’ (as used of a drug addict)
USA, 1917—a method of treating a drug addict by sudden and complete withdrawal of the drug, instead of by a gradual process—alludes to the goose pimples, resembling the skin of a cold turkey, that a person experiences as a side effect of the treatment
Read More‘to recharge one’s batteries’: meaning and origin
USA, 1890—to regain one’s energy by resting after a period of exertion—the image is of restoring an electric charge to a battery
Read More‘Heavens to Betsy’: meaning and early occurrences
USA, 1857—an exclamation expressing surprise or dismay—the motivation for the choice of the female forename ‘Betsy’ (variant of ‘Betty’, pet form of ‘Elizabeth’) is unknown
Read More‘to beat the Dutch’: meaning and origin
USA, 1775—to do or say something remarkable or startling—the precise underlying notion in the choice of ‘Dutch’ is not clear—‘Dutch’ occurs in a number of derogatory or derisive English phrases
Read More‘a penny soul never came to twopence’
UK, 1844—extreme meanness never made anyone better off—compare Book of Proverbs, 11:24: “There is one who scatters, yet increases more; and there is one who withholds more than is right, but it leads to poverty.”
Read More‘for show and not for blow’ | ‘one for show and one for blow’
19th century—refer to two handkerchiefs, one used as a clothing accessory, the other for blowing the nose—hence, figuratively ‘for display rather than for use’ and ‘one for display and one for use’
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