‘ashtray breath’: meaning and origin
foul-smelling breath caused by smoking—USA, 1931, in advertisements for Old Golds, a U.S. brand of cigarettes
Read MoreTag: USA
‘information fatigue’: meaning and early occurrences
1988, Australia & USA—apathy, indifference or mental exhaustion arising from exposure to too much information—especially stress induced by the attempt to assimilate excessive amounts of information from the media, the Internet or at work
Read More‘blandification’: meaning and origin
USA, 1969—the action or process of becoming or being made plain, ordinary, uninteresting or insipid—from the adjective ‘bland’ and the suffix ‘‑ification’, forming nouns of action
Read More‘would bog a duck’: meaning and origin
is used of waterlogged land—USA,1859—Australia, 1874—now chiefly Australian
Read More‘Christmas spirit’: meaning and early occurrences
UK, 1827—a mood or attitude appropriate to the Christmas season, especially one involving feelings of goodwill, benevolence and a willingness to enjoy oneself
Read More‘annus horribilis’: meaning and origin
UK, 1867—a disastrous or particularly unpleasant year—Latin, literally ‘a horrible year’—coined after Latin ‘annus mirabilis’, literally ‘an extraordinary year’
Read More‘ships that pass in the night’: meanings and origin
people who meet for a short time, by chance, and then do not see each other again—people who, although living together, are unable to see very much of each other—coined in 1873 by the U.S. poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Read More‘gallows-humour’: meaning and origin
grim and ironical humour—UK, 1860, in reference to the practice of public executions—UK, 1870, as a loan translation from German ‘Galgenhumor’, in the context of the Franco-Prussian War
Read More‘candid camera’: meaning and origin
UK, 1929—a small camera for taking informal photographs of persons, usually without their knowledge—earlier occurrences (UK & USA, from 1907 to 1924) are often of unclear meaning
Read More‘shaggy-dog story’: meaning and early occurrences
USA, 1914—origin unknown—a long rambling joke ending in a deliberate anticlimax, such as an absurd or irrelevant punchline
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