French hours
n.— «Up at 6 to get ready for the day’s shoot (civilized French hours of noon to 8 p.m.), in bed some time after 1 a.m. » —“‘A Man And A Woman’ Redux: Trying To Rekindle The Ashes” by William Hall Los Angeles Times (California) Mar. 9, 1986. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
A flashlight doesn’t flash. It provides a steady beam of light. So why is it called a flashlight? The earliest versions lit up only briefly before the batteries gave out and required a recharge, so they were literally “flash lights...
In Cockney rhyming slang, apples and pears is a synonym for “stairs,” and dustbin lids means kids. Plus, sniglets are clever coinages for things we don’t already have words for. Any guesses what incogsneeto means? It’s the...