Mike in Glasgow, Kentucky, wonders about a catchphrase used in British comedies: I go to the foot of the stairs. The Oxford Dictionary of Catchphrases (Amazon) compiled by Anna Farkas and several books by catchphrase collector Nigel Rees both point...
A trucker in Glasgow, Kentucky, wonders about the term boom dog, a device used to secure things on a trailer. The boom may be inspired by a ship’s boom. The word dog has long been used in a variety of ways to refer to something that holds...
Glasgow shower n.— «When about to go out somewhere special for the evening my personal grooming consists of hacking at my face with the blunt Bic razor my wife keeps by the side of the bath for when the waxing business hasn’t quite done...
fearty n.— Note: The Dictionary of the Scots Language also includes the spelling feardie. «Independence is the big question behind current Scottish politics. If unionists avoid asking it, they look like what the Scots call...
stowed out adj.— «It involved greater face-to-face discussions with local people. Sceptics said it wouldn’t work—because no one in the public would talk to “The Polis” either through fear or mistrust. In fact, when they went...
ambulance-chasing n.— «Gatehouse has accused the paper’s authors of conducting “a piece of ambulance-chasing research that is coming in on the coat-tails of the GM controversy.”» —“GM link of scientist who discredited...
