revolving bastard
n.— «I have had a fine encounter with Pappy Selznick. I wrote you about the requirement that I send publicity to Birdwell. Well, Birdwell is the revolving bastard if there ever was one. (The Revolving Bastard, in case you don’t know, is a bastard any way you turn him.)» —Jan. 15, 1939, in a letter from Susan “Sue” Myrick to Margaret Mitchell quoted in White Columns in Hollywood: Reports from the GWTW Sets, 1982, by Susan Myrick. “GWTW” is Gone With the Wind, the movie based on Mitchell’s book.(source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
What’s up with ketchup? The shifting history and spelling of the name of this condiment. For centuries, ketchup was a fishy sauce originating in Asia—the tomatoes came only later! Plus, a new book shows what’s lost when a language dies: when there...
Authors often go through several working titles before settling on one. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (Bookshop|Amazon) was originally Trimalchio in West Egg, Trimalchio being an ostentatious nouveau riche character in an ancient Roman work...