‘under the weather’: meaning and origin
USA, 1815—not completely well; slightly ill or depressed—the image is of a ship caught in a storm (the noun ‘weather’ has long been used to denote a storm)
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‘to kick the can down the road’: meaning, origin (?), and early occurrences
to delay dealing with a difficult situation—USA, 1983—may refer to toying idly with a discarded can while walking down a road or street
Read More‘to put one’s cue in the rack’: meaning and origin
USA, late 19th century—to give up, to retire, also, occasionally, to die—from the image of a billiard-player putting the cue back in the rack when the game is over
Read More‘to kick the tyres’: meaning and origin
USA, early 1960s—to test, check or research the condition or quality of a product, service, etc., before purchase or use—alludes to the practice consisting for a prospective buyer in kicking the tyres of a motorcar when inspecting it
Read More‘Bridezilla’: meaning and origin
USA, 1995—a woman thought to have become intolerably obsessive or overbearing in planning the details of her wedding—from ‘Godzilla, the suffix ‘-zilla’ is used to form humorous nouns which depict a person or thing as a particularly fearsome, relentless or overbearing example of its kind
Read More‘Popemobile’: original meaning
USA, 1969—the 1964 Lincoln Continental specially built and equipped for Pope Paul VI’s 1965 visit to the United States
Read More‘not with a bang but a whimper’: meaning and origin
early 1930s—in an anti-climactic, disappointing way (used of something that comes to an end)—alludes to the last line of The Hollow Men (1925), by T. S. Eliot
Read More‘the lunatics are running the asylum’: meaning and origin
UK, 1886—those in charge of an organisation, project or initiative lack the fundamental qualities needed to fulfil their responsibilities
Read More‘the Greeks had a word for it’: meanings and origin
USA, 1930—used either literally or of something that should not or cannot be named or mentioned—alludes to ‘The Greeks Had a Word for It’, the title of a 1930 stage play by Zoe Akins
Read More‘one man’s meat is another man’s poisson’: meanings and origin
humorous variant of ‘one man’s meat is another man’s poison’—Australia, 1872—used in particular of the opposition between flesh-eating and fish-eating in relation to the religious observance of fasting
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