Читать книгу A Word In Your Shell-Like - Nigel Rees - Страница 8
ОглавлениеArgentina See DON’T CRY.
arm See CHANCE ONE’S.
(to cost an) arm and a leg A measurement of (high) cost, as in ‘That’ll cost you an arm and a leg’. Probably of American origin, mid-20th century. Compare this with B. H. Malkin’s 1809 translation of Le Sage’s Gil Blas: ‘He was short in his reckoning by an arm and a leg.’
armed to the teeth Heavily armed, alluding to the fact that pirates are sometimes portrayed as carrying a knife or sabre held between the teeth. ‘Is there any reason why we should be armed to the teeth?’ – Richard Cobden, Speeches (1849); ‘Mujahedin…played a major role in bringing down the Shah and armed to the teeth’ – The Daily Telegraph (21 August 1979); ‘Once upon a time it would have been pirates fighting over buried treasure. Nowadays it’s redneck firemen (Bill Paxton and William Sadler) under siege from a posse of drug dealers (headed by rappers Ice T and Ice Cube) who are armed to the teeth with guns and mobile phones’ – The Sunday Telegraph (9 May 1993).
armpit See MAKES YOUR.
arms and the man The title of George Bernard Shaw’s play Arms and the Man (1894) comes from the first line of Virgil’s Aeneid: ‘Arma virumque cano [Of arms and the man, I sing]’ or rather from Dryden’s translation of the same: ‘Arms, and the man I sing.’ Earlier than Shaw, Thomas Carlyle, suggesting in Past and Present (1843) that a true modern epic was technological rather than military, had written: ‘For we are to bethink us that the Epic verily is not Arms and the Man, but Tools and the Man.’
(the) army game The Army Game was an immensely popular British TV comedy series (1957–62). Its title homed in on a phrase that seemed to sum up the attitude of those condemned to spend their lives in the ranks. Apparently of American origin, possibly by 1900, ‘it’s the old army game’ refers to the military system as it works to the disadvantage of those in the lower ranks. From Theodore Fredenburgh’s Soldiers March (1930): ‘I get the idea. It’s the old army game: first, pass the buck, second…’ The phrase also occurs in the film You Can’t Take It With You (US 1938). Compare war game (known by 1900), a theoretical way of fighting battles (and a type of chess). The War Game (1965) was the title of a TV film by Peter Watkins that was for a long time not shown because of its vivid depiction of the effect of nuclear war on the civilian population.
(the) arrogance of power The Arrogance of Power (1967) was the title of a book by the American Democratic politician J. William Fulbright. It questioned the basis of US foreign policy, particularly in Vietnam and the Dominican Republic. In the previous year, Fulbright, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, had given lectures establishing his theme: ‘A psychological need that nations seem to have…to prove that they are bigger, better or stronger than other nations.’
arse See ALL BALLS; DOESN’T KNOW HIS.
arsehole See FROM ARSEHOLE.
arsenic and old lace Title of a play (1941) by Joseph Kesselring (filmed US 1941) about two old ladies who poison elderly gentlemen. It plays upon the earlier lavender and old lace, itself used as the title of sentimental novel (1902) by Myrtle Reed. That phrase came to be used as a way of indicating old-fashioned gentility.
ars gratia artis Motto of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film company. Howard Dietz, director of publicity and advertising with the original Goldwyn Pictures company, had left Columbia University not long before creating it circa 1916. When asked to design a trademark, he based it on the university’s lion and added the Latin words meaning ‘art for art’s sake’ underneath. The trademark and motto were carried over when Samuel Goldwyn retired to make way for the merger of Metropolitan with the interests of Louis B. Mayer in what has become known since as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Goldwyn may never have subscribed to the sentiment it expressed. Most of his working life was spent as an independent producer, famously more interested in money than art.
art See AS THE ART.
Arthur See BIG-HEARTED.
Arthur’s bosom A malapropism for ABRAHAM’S BOSOM from Shakespeare’s Henry V, II.iii.9 (1599). The Hostess (formerly Mistress Quickly) says of the dead Falstaff: ‘Nay, sure, he’s not in hell: he’s in Arthur’s bosom, if ever man went to Arthur’s bosom.’
artificial See AMUSING.
(the) art of the possible What politics is said to be. A phrase used as the title of memoirs (1971) by R. A. (Lord) Butler, the British Conservative politician. In the preface to the paperback edition of The Art of the Possible, Butler noted that this definition of politics appears first to have been used in modern times by Bismarck in 1866–7 (in conversation with Meyer von Waldeck: ‘Die Politik ist keine exakte Wissenschaft, wie viele der Herren Professoren sich einbilden, sondern eine Kunst [politics are not a science, as many professors declare, but an art]’). If he said precisely the phrase as used by Butler, it would have been: ‘Die Politik ist die Lehr vom Möglichen’. Others who have touched on the idea included Cavour, Salvador de Madriaga, Pindar and Camus. To these might be added J.K. Galbraith’s rebuttal: ‘Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable’ – letter to President Kennedy (March 1962), quoted in Ambassador’s Journal (1969).
art thou weary? From a hymn ‘translated from the Greek’ by the Reverend J. M. Neale (1818–66). It continues: ‘…art thou languid, / art thou sore distressed?’ Compare: ‘Art thou troubled? / Music will calm thee. Art thou weary…’ – an aria from Handel’s opera Rodelinda (1725), with libretto by Salvi.
as any fule kno [as any fool know] A stock phrase of the schoolboy character Nigel Molesworth in the books written by Geoffrey Willans and illustrated by Ronald Searle in the 1950s. The books retained the schoolboy spelling of the ‘Curse of St Custard’s’. From Down With Skool! (1953): ‘A chiz is a swiz or swindle as any fule kno.’ The phrase had a revival from the 1980s onwards when the books were republished.
as awkward as a pig with side pockets (Of a person) very awkward. Apperson finds ‘as much need of it as a toad of a side pocket, said of a person who desires anything for which he has no real occasion’, by 1785, and ‘as much use as a cow has for side pockets’, in Cheshire Proverbs (1917). Compare as awkward as a cow with a musket.
as black as Egypt’s night Very black indeed. The allusion is biblical. Exodus 10:21 mentions the plague of ‘darkness which may be felt’ (a sandstorm, perhaps), that Moses imposed on the Pharaoh in response to the Lord’s instruction. Samuel Wesley (d. 1837) had: ‘Gloomy and dark as Hell’s or Egypt’s night’; and John and Charles Wesley’s version of Psalm 55 contains (although the Bible doesn’t): ‘And horror deep as Egypt’s night, or hell’s tremendous gloom.’ A more benign view of Egypt’s night occurs in Kipling’s ‘The White Man’s Burden’ (1899) where the people of India complain of British colonization: ‘Why brought ye us from bondage, / Our loved Egyptian night?’ – where the reference is to civilized Egypt. In the poem ‘Riding Down from Bangor’, written by the American Louis Shreve Osborne and anthologized by 1897, a bearded student and a village maiden make the most of it when the railway train in which they are travelling enters a tunnel: ‘Whiz! Slap! Bang! into the tunnel quite / Into glorious darkness, black as Egypt’s night…’
as black as Newgate knocker This comparison meaning ‘extremely black’ and known by 1881 alludes to Newgate gaol, the notorious prison for the City of London until 1880. It must have had a very formidable and notable knocker because not only do we have this expression but a ‘Newgate knocker’ was the name given to a lock of hair twisted to look like a knocker.
as black as the Devil’s nutting bag Apperson has this by 1866. Mrs Jean Wigget wrote (1995) that her mother used to say that ‘Dirty hands looked “like the colour of Old Nick’s nutting bag”.’
as busy as a one-armed paperhanger with the itch Colourful comparison, listed by Mencken (1942) as an ‘American saying’. ‘As busy as a one-armed man with the nettle-rash pasting on wall-paper’ appears in O. Henry, Gentle Grafter: The Ethics of Pig (1908). The supply is endless, but here are a few more: ‘as scarce as rocking-horse manure’ (an example from Australia); ‘as lonely as a country dunny’ (ditto); ‘as mad as a gumtree full of galahs’ (ditto); ‘as inconspicuous as Liberace at a wharfies’ picnic’ (ditto); ‘as black as an Abo’s arsehole’ (ditto); ‘as easy as juggling with soot’; ‘as jumpy as a one-legged cat in a sandbox’; ‘as much chance as a fart in a windstorm’; ‘as much use as a one-legged man at an arse-kicking contest’ (or ‘a legless man in a pants-kicking contest’ – Gore Vidal, Life Magazine (9 June 1961); ‘as likely as a snowstorm in Karachi’. In his 1973 novel Red Shift, Alan Garner has ‘you’re as much use as a chocolate teapot’; ‘as useless as a chocolate kettle’ (of a UK football team), quoted on BBC Radio Quote…Unquote (1986).
as cold as charity Ironic description of charity that is grudgingly given or dispensed without warmth – particularly by the public charities of the Victorian era. In 1382, John Wycliffe translated Matthew 24:12 as: ‘The charite of many schal wexe coold.’ Robert Southey, The Soldier’s Wife (1721), has: ‘Cold is thy heart and as frozen as charity’. Anthony Trollope, Can You Forgive Her?, Chap. 43 (1865) has: ‘The wind is as cold as charity.’
as dark as the inside of a cow As dark as it can possibly be. A likely first appearance of this phrase is in Mark Twain, Roughing It, Chap. 4 (1891). He puts it within quotes, thus: ‘…made the place “dark as the inside of a cow,” as the conductor phrased it in his picturesque way.’ So probably an American coinage. A few years later Somerville & Ross were writing in Some Experiences of an Irish RM, Chap. 10 (1899): ‘As black as the inside of a cow’.
as different as chalk from cheese Very different indeed (despite the superficial similarity that they both look whitish). In use since the 16th century, although the pairing of the alliterative chalk and cheese has been known since 1393. Sometimes found as ‘not to know chalk from cheese’ – unable to tell the difference – or ‘to be able to tell chalk from cheese’ – to have good sense.
as dim as a Toc H lamp Very dim (unintelligent). Dates from the First World War in which there was a Christian social centre for British ‘other ranks’ opened at Talbot House in Poperinghe, Belgium, in 1915 and named after an officer who was killed – G. W. L. Talbot, son of a Bishop of Winchester. ‘Toc H’ was signalese for ‘Talbot House’. The institute continued long after the war under its founder, the Reverend P. B. (‘Tubby’) Clayton. A lamp was its symbol.
as Dorothy Parker once said…The title of a stage show (circa 1975), devoted to the wit of Dorothy Parker and performed by Libby Morris. This is testimony to the fact that Parker is undoubtedly the most quoted woman of the 20th century. It is probably an allusion to the verse of Cole Porter’s song ‘Just One of Those Things’ (1935), that begins: ‘As Dorothy Parker once said to her boy friend, “Fare thee well”…’
as easy as falling off a log Very simple. This citation from the New Orleans Picayune (29 March 1839) suggests a North American origin and the quotation marks, that it was reasonably well established by that date: ‘He gradually went away from the Lubber, and won the heat, “just as easy as falling off a log”.’
as every schoolboy knows ‘It is a well-known fact’ – a consciously archaic use. Robert Burton wrote ‘Every schoolboy hath…’in The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621) and Bishop Jeremy Taylor used the expression ‘every schoolboy knows it’ in 1654. In the next century, Jonathan Swift had, ‘I might have told how oft Dean Perceval / Displayed his pedantry unmerciful, / How haughtily he cocks his nose, / To tell what every schoolboy knows’, in his poem ‘The Country Life’ (1722). But the most noted user of this rather patronizing phrase was Lord Macaulay, the historian, who would say things like, ‘Every schoolboy knows who imprisoned Montezuma, and who strangled Atahualpa’ (essay on ‘Lord Clive’, January 1840). But do they still?
as if I cared…Catchphrase from the 1940s BBC radio series ITMA. Sam Fairfechan (Hugh Morton) would say, ‘Good morning, how are you today?’ and immediately add, ‘As if I cared…’ The character took his name from Llanfairfechan, a seaside resort in North Wales, where Ted Kavanagh, ITMA’s scriptwriter, lived when the BBC Variety Department was evacuated to nearby Bangor during the early part of the Second World War.
as it happens A verbal tic of the British disc jockey Jimmy Savile (later Sir James Savile OBE) (b. 1926). He used it as the title of his autobiography in 1974. However, when the book came out in paperback the title had been changed to Love Is an Uphill Thing because (or so it was explained) the word ‘love’ in the title would ensure extra sales. After dance-hall exposure, Savile began his broadcasting career with Radio Luxembourg in the 1950s. His other stock phrase how’s about that then, guys and gals? started then. For example, on Radio Luxembourg, The Teen and Twenty Disc Club, he certainly said, ‘Hi, there, guys and gals, welcome to the…’
as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted…A humorous phrase used when resuming an activity after an enforced break. In September 1946, Cassandra (William O’Connor) resumed his column in the Daily Mirror after it had been suspended for the duration of the Second World War, with: ‘As I was saying when I was interrupted, it is a powerful hard thing to please all the people all the time.’ In June of that same year, announcer Leslie Mitchell is reported to have begun BBC TV’s resumed transmissions with: ‘As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted.’ The phrase sounds as if it might have originated in music-hall routines of the I DON’T WISH TO KNOW THAT, KINDLY LEAVE THE STAGE type. Compare A. A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh (1926): ‘“AS – I – WAS – SAYING,” said Eeyore loudly and sternly, “as I was saying when I was interrupted by various Loud Sounds, I feel that –”.’ Fary Luis de León, the Spanish poet and religious writer, is believed to have resumed a lecture at Salamanca University in 1577 with, ‘Dicebamus hesterno die…[We were saying yesterday].’ He had been in prison for five years.
as I walked out one midsummer morning The title of Laurie Lee’s memoir As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning (1969) uses a format phrase that occurs in a number of English folk songs. Indeed, in his earlier Cider With Rosie, Lee refers to an old song with the line, ‘As I walked out one May morning’. Another folk song begins, ‘As I rode out one midsummer’s morning.’ Compare the line from the Robert Burns’ poem, ‘As I went out ae [= one] May morning’ (which is based on an old Scottish song).
ask See DON’T.
ask a silly question (get a silly answer) A response to an answer that is less than helpful or amounts to a put-down. The second part is often not spoken, just inferred. Probably since the late 19th century.
ask the man who owns one This slogan for Packard motors, in the USA from circa 1902, originated with James Ward Packard, the founder of the company, and appeared for many years in all Packard advertising and sales material. Someone had written asking for more information about his motors. Packard told his secretary: ‘Tell him that we have no literature – we aren’t that big yet – but if he wants to know how good an automobile the Packard is, tell him to ask the man who owns one.’ A 1903 Packard placard is the first printed evidence of the slogan in use. It lasted for more than 35 years.
as lazy as Ludlum’s dog who lay down to bark Very lazy. Partridge/Slang has ‘lazy as Ludlum’s/(David) Laurence’s/Lumley’s dog…meaning extremely lazy…According to the [old] proverb, this admirable creature leant against a wall to bark’ and compares the 19th-century ‘lazy as Joe the marine who laid down his musket to fart’ and ‘lazy as the tinker who laid his budget to fart’. Apperson finds ‘lazy as Ludlam’s dog, that leant his head against a wall to bark’ in Ray’s proverb collection (1670).
as long as you’ve got your health, that’s the main thing A resounding cliché – uttered in BBC TV, Hancock, ‘The Blood Donor’ (23 June 1961). The corollary: ‘If you haven’t got your health, you haven’t got anything.’
as many---as you’ve had hot dinners Originally perhaps ‘I’ve had as many women…’, this is an experienced person’s boast to one less so. Well established by the mid-20th century, then subjected to endless variation. ‘I’ve had more gala luncheons than you’ve had hot dinners’ – BBC TV, Monty Python’s Flying Circus (12 October 1969); ‘If I agreed to these sorts of requests my name would be on more notepaper than you’ve had hot dinners’ – letter from Kenneth Williams (16 July 1975) in The Kenneth Williams Letters (1994).
as near as damn is to swearing Very close indeed. First heard from a Liverpool optician in 1963. No confirmation from any other source.
as night follows day…Inevitably. Possibly a Shakespearean coinage – in Hamlet (I.iii.78) (1600), Polonius says: ‘This above all: to thine own self be true, / And it must follow as the night the day / Thou canst not then be false to any man’. Further examples: ‘Because, if incomes run ahead of production, it will follow as night follows day, that the only result will be higher prices and no lasting improvement in living standards’ – Harold Wilson in a speech to the Shopworkers’ Union Conference (1965); ‘As surely as night follows day, the pompous, the pretentious and the politically correct will seize the lion’s share of the money available’ – leading article, Daily Mail (28 April 1995).
as one does A slightly destabilizing comment in conversation. Indentified by Miles Kington in The Independent (2 May 2000): ‘One recent expression that has caught on in a big way is: “As one does,” or variants of it. Someone says, “I was going along the Piccadilly the other day wearing one green, one brown sock,” and while all the other listeners are waiting patiently to hear why this happened and whether it can be made funny, there is always one smart alec who pipes up: “As one does.” That is still very trendy, and I wish it wasn’t.’ Another version is as you do. ‘The couple retain a pad in Canada as well as homes in London, New York and Palm Beach, and it’s to Toronto that Lady Black “flies to get her hair cut”. As you do’ – The Guardian (26 August 2002).
as pleased as Punch The earliest citation for this phrase is in a letter from the poet Thomas Moore to Lady Donegal in 1813: ‘I was (as the poet says) as pleased as Punch.’ Obviously this alludes to the appearance of Mr Punch, a character known in England from the time of the Restoration (1660). As his face is carved on wood, it never changes expression and is always beaming. The Longman Dictionary of English Idioms (1979) is thus clearly wrong in attributing the origin of the phrase to ‘the cheerful pictures of the character Punch, who appeared on the covers of Punch magazine in the 1840s’. Even earlier, there was the expression as proud as punch. A description of a visit by George III and his Queen to Wilton House in 1778 is contained in a letter from a Dr Eyre to Lord Herbert (1 January 1779). He says: ‘The Blue Closet within was for her Majesty’s private purposes, where there was a red new velvet Close Stool, and a very handsome China Jordan, which I had the honour to produce from an old collection, & you may be sure, I am proud as Punch, that her Majesty condescended to piss in it.’ This version – ‘as proud as Punch’ – would now seem to have died out, more or less, although Christy Brown, Down All the Days, Chap. 17 (1970) has, ‘Every man-jack of them sitting there proud as punch with their sons…’
as queer as Dick’s hatband (it went round twice and then didn’t meet or wouldn’t tie) Very odd. Numerous versions of this saying have been recorded but all indicate that something is not right with a person or thing. ‘A botched-up job done with insufficient materials was “like Dick’s hat-band that went half-way round and tucked”’ – according to Flora Thompson, Lark Rise, Chap. 3 (1939). The OED2 gives the phrase thus: ‘as queer (tight, odd, etc.) as Dick’s (or Nick’s) hatband’, and adds: ‘Dick or Nick was probably some local character or half-wit, whose droll sayings were repeated.’ Partridge/Slang describes it as ‘an intensive tag of chameleonic sense and problematic origin’ and dating it from the mid-18th to the early 19th century, finds a Cheshire phrase, ‘all my eye and Dick’s hatband’, and also a version that went, ‘as queer as Dick’s hatband, that went nine times round and wouldn’t meet.’ In Grose (1796) is the definition: ‘I am as queer as Dick’s hatband; that is, out of spirits, or don’t know what ails me.’ But who was Dick, if anybody? Brewer (1894) was confident that it knew the answer: Richard Cromwell (1626–1712), who succeeded Oliver, his father, as Lord Protector in 1658 and did not make a very good job of it. Hence, ‘Dick’s hatband’ was his ‘crown’, as in the following expressions: Dick’s hatband was made of sand (‘his regal honours were a “rope of sand”’), as queer as Dick’s hatband (‘few things have been more ridiculous than the exaltation and abdication of Oliver’s son’) and as tight as Dick’s hatband (‘the crown was too tight for him to wear with safety’).
as right as ninepence Very right, proper, correct, in order. But why ninepence? Once again, the lure of alliteration lead to the (probably) earlier phrase ‘as nice as ninepence’, and then the slightly less happy phrase resulted when someone was coining an ‘as right as’ comparison. In any case, the word ‘ninepence’ occurs in a number of proverbial phrases (‘as like as nine pence to nothing’, ‘as neat as ninepence’), dating from the time when this was a more substantial amount of money than it now is.
as seen on TV A line used in print advertising to underline a connection with products already shown in TV commercials. Presumably of American origin and dating from the 1940s/50s. Now also used to promote almost anything – books, people – that has ever had the slightest TV exposure. From Joyce Grenfell Requests the Pleasure (1976): ‘There was sponge cake of the most satisfactory consistency. Unlike the bready stuff that passes for sponge cake today (machine-made, packaged to be stirred up, as seen on TV)…’
as sure as eggs is eggs Absolutely certain. A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew by ‘B.E.’ has ‘As sure as eggs be eggs’ in 1699. There is no very obvious reason why eggs should be ‘sure’, unless the saying is a corruption of the mathematician or logician’s ‘x is x’. But by the 18th century, the saying was being shortened to ‘as sure as eggs’, which might dispose of that theory. Known by 1680. It occurs also in Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers, Chap.43 (1836–7). Compare the rather different like as one egg to another (i.e. very like) which dates from Plautus in Latin but can be found in English forms from 1542. Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale, I.ii.129 (1611) has: ‘Yet they say we are / Almost as like as eggs.’
as sure as I’m riding this bicycle A rather meaningless assertion of certainty or truth, not to be taken too seriously. Michael Flanders says, ‘Absolutely true, as sure as I’m riding this bicycle’, in his explanation following the song ‘Commonwealth Fair’ on the record album Tried By the Centre Court (1977). This was obviously a questionable assertion as he was sitting in his wheel-chair at the time. Similar expressions, to be believed or not, include ‘True as I’m strangling this ferret’ in BBC radio’s I’m Sorry I’ll Read That Again (1960s), ‘as true as the gospel’ (earliest citation 1873), ‘as true as I live’ (1640), ‘as true as steel/velvet’ (1607).
(the) Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold An allusion to Byron’s line, ‘The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold’ from ‘The Destruction of Sennacherib’, St. 1 (1815). Byron based his poem on 2 Chronicles 32 and 2 Kings 19, in which Sennacherib, King of Assyria, gets his comeuppance for besieging Jerusalem in this manner.
as the art mistress said to the gardener! Monica (Beryl Reid), the posh schoolgirl friend of Archie Andrews in the BBC radio show, Educating Archie (1950–60), used this as an alternative to the traditional:
as the Bishop said to the actress (or vice versa)! A device for turning a perfectly innocent preceding remark into a double entendre (e.g. ‘I’ve never seen a female “Bottom”…as the Bishop said to the actress’). The phrase was established by 1930 when Leslie Charteris used it no fewer than five times in Enter the Saint, including: ‘“I should be charmed to oblige you – as the actress said to the bishop,” replied the Saint’; ‘“There’s something I particularly want to do to-night.” “As the bishop said to the actress,” murmured the girl’; and, ‘“You’re getting on – as the actress said to the bishop,” he murmured.’
as the crow flies The shortest distance between two points. Known by 1800. In fact, crows seldom fly in a straight line but the point of the expression is to express how any bird might fly without having to follow the wanderings of a road (as an earthbound traveller would have to do).
as the monkey said…Introductory phrase to a form of Wellerism. For example, if a child says it can’t wait for something, the parent says: ‘Well, as the monkey said when the train ran over its tail, “It won’t be long now”.’ According to Partridge/Slang, there is any number of ‘as the monkey said’ remarks in which there is always a simple pun at stake: e.g. ‘“They’re off!” shrieked the monkey, as he slid down the razor blade.’
as the poet has it/says A quoter’s phrase, exhibiting either a knowing vagueness or actual ignorance. ‘As the poet says’ was being used in 1608. This is in a letter from the poet Thomas Moore to Lady Donegal in 1813: ‘I was (as the poet says) as pleased as Punch.’ When Margaret Thatcher was British Prime Minister, she was interviewed on radio (7 March 1982) about how she felt when her son, Mark, was believed lost on the Trans-Sahara car rally. She realized then, she said, that all the little things people worried about really were not worth it…‘As the poet said, “One clear morn is boon enough for being born,” and so it is.’ (In this case, she might be forgiven for using the phrase, as the authorship of the poem is not known.) The phrase can also be used to dignify an undistinguished quotation (rather as PARDON MY FRENCH excuses swearing): P. G. Wodehouse, Mike (1909): ‘As the poet has it, “Pleasure is pleasure, and biz is biz”.’
as the saying is Boniface, the landlord in George Farquhar’s play The Beaux’ Stratagem (1707), has a curious verbal mannerism. After almost every phrase, he adds, ‘As the saying is…’, but this was in itself a well-established phrase even then. In 1548, Hugh Latimer in The Sermon on the Ploughers had: ‘And I fear me this land is not yet ripe to be ploughed. For as the saying is: it lacketh weathering.’ Nowadays, ‘as the saying goes’ seems to be preferred. From R. L. Stevenson, Treasure Island, Chap. 4 (1883): ‘There were moments when, as the saying goes, I jumped in my skin for terror.’ Stevenson also uses ‘as the saying is’, however. Another, less common, form occurs in Mervyn Jones, John and Mary, Chap. 1 (1966): ‘She gave herself, as the phrase goes. It wouldn’t normally be said that I gave myself: I took her, as the phrase goes.’
as thick as two short planks Very thick (or stupid) indeed. Of course, the length of the planks is not material here, but never mind. OED2’s sole mention of the phrase dates only from 1987. Partridge/Slang dates the expression from 1950.
as though there were no tomorrow Meaning, ‘recklessly, with no regard to the future’ or ‘with desperate vigour’ (especially the spending of money), as Paul Beale glosses it in his revision of Partridge/Slang, suggesting that it was adopted from the USA in the late 1970s. However, it had been known since 1862. ‘The free travel scheme aimed at encouraging cyclists to use trains unearthed a biking underground which took to the trains like there was no tomorrow’ – Time Out (4 January 1980); ‘The evidence from the last major redrawing of council boundaries is mixed. Some authorities did go for broke, and spent their capital reserves as though there were no tomorrow’ – The Times (9 June 1994).
astonish me! A cultured variant of the more popular amaze me! or surprise me! inserted into conversation, for example, when the other speaker has just said something like, ‘I don’t know whether you will approve of what I’ve done…’ In some cases, an allusion to the remark made by Serge Diaghilev, the Russian ballet impresario, to Jean Cocteau, the French writer and designer, in Paris in 1912. Cocteau had complained to Diaghilev that he was not getting enough encouragement and the Russian exhorted him with the words, ‘Étonne-moi! I’ll wait for you to astound me’ – recorded in Cocteau’s Journals (1956).
as we know it ‘Politics as we know it will never be the same again’ – Private Eye (4 December 1981). This simple intensifier has long been with us, however. From Grove’s Dictionary of Music (1883): ‘The Song as we know it in his [Schubert’s] hands…such songs were his and his alone.’ From a David Frost/Peter Cook sketch on sport clichés (BBC TV, That Was the Week That Was, 1962–3 series): ‘The ghastly war which was to bring an end to organised athletics as we knew it.’
as we say in the trade A slightly self-conscious (even camp) tag after the speaker has uttered a piece of jargon or something unusually grandiloquent. First noticed in the 1960s and probably of American origin. From the record album Snagglepuss Tells the Story of the Wizard of Oz (1966): ‘“Once upon a time”, as we say in the trade…’ Compare the older as we say in France, after slipping a French phrase into English speech (from the 19th century) – and compare THAT’S YOUR ACTUAL FRENCH.
as you may know…or as you may not know See GOD, WHAT A BEAUTY.
at a stroke Although this expression for ‘with a single blow, all at once’ can be traced back to Chaucer, the allusion latterly has been to the supposed words of Edward Heath, in the run-up to the British General Election of 1970. ‘This would, at a stroke, reduce the rise in prices, increase productivity and reduce unemployment’ are words contained in a press release (No. G.E. 228), from Conservative Central Office, dated 16 June 1970, that was concerned with tax cuts and a freeze on prices by nationalized industries. The perceived promise of ‘at a stroke’, though never actually spoken by Heath, came to haunt him when he became Prime Minister two days later.
at daggers drawn Meaning, ‘hostile to each other’. Formerly, ‘at daggers’ drawing’ – when quarrels were settled by fights with daggers. Known by 1668 but common only from the 19th century. ‘Three ladies…talked of for his second wife, all at daggers drawn with each other’ – Maria Edgeworth, Castle Rackrent (1801). ‘It just might be different this time, however, because of a dimension that, amid all the nuclear brouhaha, has received much less attention than it merits. The two Korean governments may be at daggers drawn, but this has not stopped their companies from doing business’ – The Independent (28 June 1994); ‘The trick will be shown on The Andrew Newton Hypnotic Experience which starts on BSkyB next Friday and will have fellow illusionist Paul McKenna glued to his seat – the pair have been at daggers drawn for years’ – Today (8 October 1994).
(the) Athens of the North Nickname for Edinburgh, presumably earned by the city because of its reputation as a seat of learning. It has many long-established educational institutions and a university founded in 1583. In addition, when the ‘New Town’ was constructed in the early 1800s, the city took on a fine classical aspect. As such, it might remind spectators of the Greek capital with its ancient reputation for scholastic and artistic achievement. Calling the Scottish capital either ‘Athens of the North’ or ‘Modern Athens’ seems always to have occasioned some slight unease. James Hannay, writing ‘On Edinburgh’ (circa 1860), said: ‘Pompous the boast, and yet a truth it speaks: / A Modern Athens – fit for modern Greeks.’ Most such phrases date from the 19th century, though this kind of comparison has now become the prerogative of travel writers and journalists. Paris has been called the ‘Athens of Europe’, Belfast the ‘Athens of Ireland’, Boston, Mass., the ‘Athens of the New World’, and Cordoba, Spain, the ‘Athens of the West’. In one of James A. Fitzpatrick’s ‘Traveltalks’ – a supporting feature of cinema programmes from 1925 onwards – the commentator said: ‘And as the midnight sun lingers on the skyline of the city, we most reluctantly say farewell to Stockholm, Venice of the North…’ From Tom Stoppard’s play Jumpers (1972): ‘McFee’s dead…he took offence at my description of Edinburgh as the Reykjavik of the South.’ ‘All those colorful canals, criss-crossing the city, that had made travel agents abroad burble about Bangkok as the Venice of the East’ – National Geographic Magazine (July 1967); ‘Vallam is a religious spot, once known as the Mount Athos of the North’ – Duncan Fallowell, One Hot Summer in St Petersburg (1994).
at one fell swoop In a single movement or action, all at once. A Shakespearean coinage. In Macbeth (IV.iii.219), Macduff is reacting to being told of the deaths of his wife and all his children: ‘Did you say all? – O Hell-kite! – All? / What, all my pretty chickens, and their dam, / At one fell swoop?’ So the image is that of a kite swooping on its prey. ‘Fell’ here means ‘fierce, ruthless’.
at one with the universe Meaning, ‘in harmony with the rest of mankind’ or, at least, ‘in touch with what is going on in some larger sphere’. When the Quaker George Fox (1624–91) consented to take a puff from a tobacco pipe, he said no one could accuse him of ‘not being at one with the universe’. Sometimes the phrase is ‘atoneness with the universe’. Compare, from Gore Vidal, Myra Breckinridge, Chap. 13 (1968): ‘[With a hangover from gin and marijuana] I lay in that empty bathtub with the two rings, [and] looking up at the single electric light bulb, I did have the sense that I was at one with all creation.’
attention all shipping! For many years on BBC radio, the shipping (weather) forecasts were preceded by this call when rough seas were imminent. Then would follow: ‘The following Gale Warning was issued by the Meterological Office at 0600 hours GMT today…’ (or whatever).
at the crack of dawn (or day) Meaning, ‘at the break of day, dawn’, but often used jovially in the sense of unpleasantly early, as when complaining of having to get up early to carry out some task. Apparently of US origin (by 1887), ‘crack of day’ seems to have come before ‘crack of dawn’.
at the drop of a hat Originally an American expression meaning ‘at a given signal’ – when the dropping of a hat was the signal to start a fight or race. The phrase has come to mean something more like ‘without needing encouragement, without delay.’ For example, ‘He’ll sit down and write a witty song for you at the drop of a hat.’ Hence, the title of a revue At the Drop of a Hat (1957) featuring Michael Flanders and Donald Swann – who followed it up with At the Drop of Another Hat (1963).
at the end of the day This must have been a good phrase once – alluding perhaps to the end of the day’s fighting or hunting. It appeared, for example, in Donald O’Keeffe’s 1951 song, ‘At the End of the Day, I Kneel and Pray’. But it was used in epidemic quantities during the 1970s and 1980s, and was particularly beloved of British trade unionists and politicians, indeed anyone wishing to tread verbal water. It was recognized as a hackneyed phrase by 1974, at least. Anthony Howard, a journalist, interviewing some BBC bigwig in Radio Times (March 1982), asked, ‘At the end of the day one individual surely has to take responsibility, even if it has to be after the transmission has gone out?’ Patrick Bishop, writing in The Observer (4 September 1983), said: ‘Many of the participants feel at the end of the day, the effects of the affair [the abortion debate in the Irish Republic] will stretch beyond the mere question of amendment.’ And Queen Elizabeth II, opening the Barbican Centre in March 1982, also used it. But it is the Queen’s English, so perhaps she is entitled to do what she likes with it.
at the grassroots (or from the grassroots) A political cliché, used when supposedly reflecting the opinions of the ‘rank and file’ and the ‘ordinary voter’ rather than the leadership of the political parties ‘at national level’. The full phrase is ‘from the grassroots up’ and has been used to describe anything of a fundamental nature since circa 1900 and specifically in politics from circa 1912 – originally in the US. A cliché in the UK since the late 1960s. A BBC Radio programme From the Grassroots started in 1970. Katherine Moore writing to Joyce Grenfell in An Invisible Friendship (letter of 13 October 1973): ‘Talking of writing – why have roots now always got to be grass roots? And what a lot of them seem to be about.’ ‘In spite of official discouragement and some genuine disquiet at the grassroots in both parties, 21 such joint administrations have been operating in counties, districts and boroughs over the past year’ – The Guardian (10 May 1995); ‘The mood of the grassroots party, and much of Westminster too, is for an end of big government, substantial cuts in taxation, cuts in public spending, toughness on crime, immigration and social-security spending, and as little Europe as possible’ – The Guardian (10 May 1995).
at the midnight hour The ‘midnight hour’ phrase may first have occurred in the poetry of Robert Southey. Thalaba the Destroyer (written 1799–1800, published 1801), a romance set in medieval Arabia, contains (Bk 8): ‘But when the Cryer from the Minaret / Proclaims the midnight hour, / Hast thou a heart to see her?’ Charles Lamb’s friend ‘Ralph Bigod’ [John Fenwick] in his essay ‘The two Races of Men’ (1820) has: ‘How magnificent, how ideal he was; how great at the midnight hour…’ In the same year, John Keats, ‘Ode to Psyche’, has: ‘Temple thou hast none, nor / Virginchoir to make delicious moan / Upon the midnight hours’. Keats also wrote of, ‘[Sleep] embalmer of the still midnight’, and so on. Edward Lear’s poem ‘The Dong With the Luminous Nose’ (1871) has ‘at that midnight hour’. The full phrase ‘at the midnight hour’ is a quotation from the Weston & Lee song ‘With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm (She Walks the Bloody Tower)’ (1934), as notably performed by Stanley Holloway. In a speech to the Indian Constituent Assembly (14 August 1947), Jawharlal Nehru said: ‘At the stroke of the midnight hour, while the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.’ Wilson Pickett, the American soul singer, established the phrase ‘In the Midnight Hour’ with his hit single of that title (1965).
at the psychological moment Now rather loosely used to describe an opportune moment when something can be done or achieved. It is a mistranslation of the German phrase das psychologische Moment (which was, rather, about momentum) used by a German journalist during the 1870 siege of Paris. He was thought to be discussing the moment when the Parisians would most likely be demoralized by bombardment. With or without the idea of a mind being in a state of receptivity to some persuasion, a cliché by 1900. ‘The Prince is always in the background, and turns up at the psychological moment – to use a very hard-worked and sometimes misused phrase’ – Westminster Gazette (30 October 1897); The Psychological Moment – title of a book (1994) by Robert McCrum; ‘Indeed, some would argue that the end of hanging in 1969 was the psychological moment at which we ceased to take crime as a whole seriously, putting the liberal-humanitarian “conscience” first’ – Daily Mail (27 August 1994).
at this moment in time (or at this point in time) I.e. ‘now’. Ranks with AT THE END OF THE DAY near the top of the colloquial clichés’ poll. From its periphrastic use of five words where one would do, it would be reasonable to suspect an American origin. Picked up with vigour by British trade unionists for their ad-lib wafflings, it was already being scorned by 1971: ‘What comes across vis-à-vis the non-ambulant linguistic confrontation is a getting together of defensible media people at this moment in time. I am personally oriented towards helpless laughter at the postures of these bizarre communicators’ – letter to The Times from J. R. Barnes (2 December 1971); ‘There were five similar towers…but at this moment in time, they were only of passing interest’ – Clive Eagleton, October Plot (1974); ‘The phrase “at that point of time”…quickly became an early trademark of the whole Watergate affair’ – Atlantic Monthly (January 1975); ‘At this point in time’ was described by Eric Partridge in the preface to the 5th edition of his A Dictionary of Clichés (1978) as the ‘mentally retarded offspring’ of IN THIS DAY AND AGE. ‘The Marines, of course, had other ideas, but fortune was not favouring them at this moment in time’ – R. McGowan and J. Hands, Don’t Cry for Me, Sergeant Major (1983); ‘Thoroughly agree with you about the lowering of standards in English usage on the BBC. “At this moment of time” instead of “Now” is outrageous’ – Kenneth Williams, letter of 8 October 1976, in The Kenneth Williams Letters (1994); ‘At this point in time the private rented sector of the housing market was shrinking’ – The Irish Times (8 June 1977).
attitudes See ANGLO-SAXON.
at your throat or at your feet Either attacking you or in submissive mode. Working backwards through the citations: according to J. R. Colombo’s Popcorn in Paradise (1979), Ava Gardner said about a well-known American film critic: ‘Rex Reed is either at your feet or at your throat.’ From Marlon Brando in Playboy (January 1979): ‘Chaplin reminded me of what Churchill said about the Germans: either at your feet or at your throat.’ In fact, almost every use of the phrase tends to mention Winston Churchill. He said in a speech to the US Congress (19 May 1943): ‘The proud German Army by its sudden collapse, sudden crumbling and breaking up, has once again proved the truth of the saying “The Hun is always either at your throat or at your feet”.’ That is as far back as the phrase has been traced, though Dorothy L. Sayers, Have His Carcase, Chap. 12 (1932), has the similar: ‘Like collies – lick your boots one minute and bite you the next.’
au contraire, mon frère See EAT MY SHORTS.
August See MAKES YOUR ARMPIT.
auld lang syne Meaning, ‘long ago’ (literally, ‘old long since’). ‘Syne’ should be pronounced with an ‘s’ sound and not as ‘zyne’. In 1788, Robert Burns adapted ‘Auld Lang Syne’ from ‘an old man’s singing’. The title, first line and refrain had all appeared before as the work of other poets. Nevertheless, what Burns put together is what people should sing on New Year’s Eve. Here is the first verse and the chorus: ‘Should auld acquaintance be forgot, / And never brought to min[d]? / Should auld acquaintance be forgot, / And days of o’ lang syne. / (Chorus) For auld lang syne, my dear / For auld syne, / We’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet / For auld lang syne.’ ‘For the sake of auld lang syne’ should not be substituted at the end of verse and chorus.
aunt See AGONY; MY GIDDY.
Aunt Edna During the revolution in British drama of the 1950s, this term was called into play by the new wave of ‘angry young’ dramatists and their supporters to describe the more conservative theatregoer – the type who preferred comfortable three-act plays of the Shaftesbury Avenue kind. Ironically, the term was coined in self-defence by Terence Rattigan, one of the generation of dramatists they sought to replace. In the preface to Vol. II of his Collected Plays (1953) he had written of: ‘A nice, respectable, middle-class, middle-aged maiden lady, with time on her hands and the money to help her pass it…Let us call her Aunt Edna…Now Aunt Edna does not appreciate Kafka…She is, in short, a hopeless lowbrow…Aunt Edna is universal, and to those who may feel that all the problems of the modern theatre might be solved by her liquidation, let me add that…she is also immortal.’
Auntie/Aunty BBC (or plain Auntie/Aunty) The BBC was mocked in this way by newspaper columnists, TV critics and her own employees, most noticeably from about 1955 at the start of commercial television – the Corporation supposedly being staid, over-cautious, prim and unambitious by comparison. A BBC spokesman countered with, ‘An Auntie is often a much loved member of the family.’ The corporation assimilated the nickname to such effect that when arrangements were made to supply wine to BBC clubs in London direct from vineyards in Burgundy, it was bottled under the name Tantine. In 1979, the comedian Arthur Askey claimed that he had originated the term during the Band Waggon programme as early as the late 1930s. While quite probable, the widespread use of the nickname is more likely to have occurred at the time suggested above. Wallace Reyburn in his book Gilbert Harding – A Candid Portrayal (1978) ascribes the phrase to the 1950s’ radio and TV personality. The actor Peter Bull in I Know the Face, But… (1959) writes: ‘I would be doing my “nut” and probably my swansong for Auntie BBC.’ The politician Iain Macleod used the phrase when editing The Spectator in the 1960s. Jack de Manio, the broadcaster, entitled his memoirs To Auntie With Love (1967), and the comedian Ben Elton had a BBC TV show The Man from Auntie (1990–4).
au reservoir! A jokey valediction (obviously based on au revoir) popularized by E. F. Benson in his Lucia novels of the 1920s. The phrase may have existed before this, possibly dating from a Punch joke of the 1890s.
(an) auspicious occasion Cliché used in speech-making or at any time when portentousness or pomposity is demanded. In fact, almost any use of the word ‘auspicious’ is a candidate for clichédom: ‘Drinking around the imposing stone in order to celebrate some auspicious occasion’ – Charles T. Jacobi, The Printers’ Vocabulary (1888); ‘An auspicious debut on the platform was made the other day by Mr Winston Churchill, elder son of the late Lord Randolph Churchill’ – Lady (5 August 1897); ‘What about a glass of sherry to celebrate the auspicious occasion?’ – ‘Taffrail’, Pincher Martin (1916); ‘The longer the game wore on the more obvious it became that Forest could not even rise to this auspicious occasion, much as they yearned to give their manager the mother and father of all send-offs’ – The Sunday Times (2 May 1993).
Austin Reed service See IT’S ALL PART OF THE SERVICE.
Australia See ADVANCE.
author! author! The traditional cry of an audience summoning the playwright whose work it has just watched to come on the stage and receive its plaudits. Date of origin unknown. ‘After the final curtain [at the first night of Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892)] the applause was long and hearty, and Wilde came forward from the wings to cries of “Author!”’ – Richard Ellman, Oscar Wilde, Chap. 14 (1987); Author! Author! – title of a book (1962) by P. G. Wodehouse.
avoid ‘five o’clock shadow’ The expression ‘five o’clock shadow’ for the stubbly growth that some dark-haired men acquire on their faces towards the end of the day would appear to have originated in adverts for Gem Razors and Blades in the USA before the Second World War. A 1937 advert added: ‘That unsightly beard growth which appears prematurely at about 5 pm looks bad.’ The most noted sufferer was Richard Nixon, who may have lost the TV debates in his US presidential race against John F. Kennedy in 1960 as a result. In his Memoirs (1978), Nixon wrote: ‘Kennedy arrived…looking tanned, rested and fit. My television adviser, Ted Rodgers, recommended that I use television make-up, but unwisely I refused, permitting only a little “beard stick” on my perpetual five o’clock shadow.’
(to) avoid---like the plague To avoid completely, to shun. The OED2 finds the poet Thomas Moore in 1835 writing, ‘Saint Augustine…avoided the school as the plague’. The 4th-century St Jerome is also said to have quipped, ‘Avoid as you would the plague, a clergyman who is also a man of business.’ A well-established cliché by the mid-20th century. It may have been Arthur Christiansen, one of the numerous former editors of the Daily Express about that time, who once posted a sign in the office saying: ‘ALL CLICHÉS SHOULD BE AVOIDED LIKE THE PLAGUE.’
Avon calling! A slogan first used in the USA in 1886. The first Avon Lady, Mrs P. F. A. Allre, was employed by the firm’s founder, D. H. McConnell, to visit customers at home and sell them cosmetics.
award-winning---As used in promotion, especially of theatre, films and publishing. Depressing because it does not describe its subject in any useful way. Almost any actor in a leading role is likely to have received one of the many theatrical awards available at some time, just as any writer may (however illegitimately) be called a ‘best-selling author’ if more than just a few copies of his or her books have been sold. The phrase was in use by 1962. From the Evening Standard (London) (17 February 1993): ‘Why go on about the latest “award-winning documentary maker”? If you get a documentary on television, you win an award: it goes with the territory.’ ‘Giles Cooper, who died nearly twenty years ago, is described in today’s Times as “award-winning playwright Giles Cooper”. I’d have thought one of the few things to be said in favour of death was that it extinguished all that’ – Alan Bennett, diary entry for 30 June 1984, quoted in Writing Home (1994); ‘Awardwinning actor Michael Gambon can also be seen…David Hare has written many successful plays and screenplays, including his award-winning trilogy…the Pulitzer Prize winning author, John Updike…’ – Royal National Theatre brochure (26 June–28 August 1995); ‘We also introduce some new writers this week. Allison Pearson, the award-winning TV Critic of the year, joins us from the Independent on Sunday…Kenneth Roy, another new award-winning voice…will be writing a personal weekly peripatetic notebook’ – The Observer (27 August 1995).
away See AND AWAY.
aw, don’t embarrass me! British ventriloquist Terry Hall (b. 1926) first created his doll, Lenny the Lion, from a bundle of fox fur and papier-mâché – with a golf ball for a nose – in 1954. He gave his new partner a gentle lisping voice, and added a few mannerisms and a stock phrase that emerged thus: ‘He’s ferocious! (drum roll) / He’s courageous! (drum roll) / He’s the king of the jungle! (drum roll) / – Aw, don’t embarrass me! (said with a modest paw over one eye).’ Unusually for the originator of a successful phrase, Terry Hall said (in 1979) that he made sure he did not overuse it and rested it from time to time.
awful See AMUSING.
awkward See AS AWKWARD.
(the) awkward age Adolescence – when one is no longer a child but not yet a fully fledged adult. Current by the late 19th century and possibly a development of the French l’âge ingrat. Hence, The Awkward Age, the title of a novel (1899) by Henry James.
(the) awkward squad Of military origin and used to denote a group of difficult, uncooperative people, the phrase originally referred to a squad that consisted of raw recruits and older hands who were put in it for punishment. The phrase may also have been applied to a group of soldiers who are briefed to behave awkwardly and in an undisciplined fashion in order to test the drilling capabilities of an officer under training. Sloppy in Our Mutual Friend (1864–5) is described by Charles Dickens as ‘Full-Private Number One in the Awkward Squad of the rank and file of life’. The dying words of the Scots poet Robert Burns in 1796 are said to have been, ‘John, don’t let the awkward squad fire over me’ – presumably referring to his fear that literary opponents might metaphorically fire a volley of respect, as soldiers sometimes do over a new grave.
(I) awoke one morning and found myself famous Byron’s famous comment on the success of the first two cantos of Childe Harold in 1812 has become an expression in its own right. It was first quoted in Thomas Moore, The Letters and Journals of Lord Byron (1830).
AWOL ‘Absent WithOut Leave’ – unwarranted absence from the military for a short period but falling short of actual desertion. This expression dates from the American Civil War when offenders had to wear a placard with these initials printed on it. During the First World War, the initials were still being pronounced individually. It does not mean ‘absent without official leave’.
(to have an) axe to grind The expression meaning ‘to have an ulterior motive, a private end to serve’ would appear to have originated with an anecdote related by Benjamin Franklin in his essay ‘Too Much for Your Whistle’. A man showed interest in young Franklin’s grindstone and asked how it worked. In the process of explaining, Franklin – using much energy – sharpened up the visitor’s axe for him. This was clearly what the visitor had had in mind all along. Subsequently, Franklin (who died in 1790) had to ask himself whether other people he encountered had ‘another axe to grind’. Cited as a ‘dying metaphor’ by George Orwell in ‘Politics and the English Language’ in Horizon (April 1946). ‘Manhattan Cable showed that some of the most ordinary people are very good on TV. In Britain, where the idea of access is a familiar one, it’s still a very mediated and restricted thing where you have to have a politically correct axe to grind’ – The Guardian (24 October 1991).
aye, aye, that’s yer lot! Signing-off line of Jimmy Wheeler (1910–73), a British Cockney comedian with a fruity voice redolent of beer, jellied eels and winkles. He would appear in a bookmaker’s suit, complete with spiv moustache and hat, and play the violin. At the end of his concluding fiddle piece, he would break off and intone these words.
aye caramba See EAT MY SHORTS.
aye, well – ye ken noo! ‘Well, you know better now, don’t you!’ – said after someone has admitted ignorance or has retold an experience that taught a lesson. It is the punch line of an old Scottish story about a Presbyterian minister preaching a hell-fire sermon whose peroration went something like this: ‘And in the last days ye’ll look up from the bottomless pit and ye’ll cry, “Lord, Lord, we did na ken [we did not know]”, and the Guid Lord in his infinite mercy will reply…“Aye, well – ye ken noo!”’
ay thang yew! A distinctive pronunciation of ‘I thank you!’ picked up from the cry of London bus conductors by Arthur Askey for the BBC radio show Band Waggon (1938–39) and used by him thereafter. He commented (1979): ‘I didn’t know I was saying it till people started to shout it at me.’ Later, as I Thank You, it became the title of one of Askey’s films (1941).
