“Not quite cricket” means not proper, substandard, or perhaps even illegal. The phrase is a reference to the world’s second most popular sport, cricket, and derives from the 19th-century notion that the “Spirit of the Game” is the epitome of good...
Collieshangles is an old Scottish term for a quarrel, possibly deriving from the notion of two collie dogs fighting. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Collieshangles” Another wonderful bit of Victorian slang, a collie shangles. A...
Did you ever wonder why we capitalize the pronoun “I,” but not any other pronoun? Also, the romantic story behind the term halcyon days, the origin of the phrase “like white on rice,” and the linguistic scuttlebutt on the word scuttlebutt. Plus, a...
kitchen n.— «Lobsters like the shelter of rocks and prefer cold water to warm. They move around a lot and find their food by smell—that’s what the antennas are for—and not by sight. But the whole notion of trapping them may be a misconception...
parlor n.— «Lobsters like the shelter of rocks and prefer cold water to warm. They move around a lot and find their food by smell—that’s what the antennas are for—and not by sight. But the whole notion of trapping them may be a misconception. There...
roll-on n.— «I also know that many white brothers who raise issues with Msholozi’s polygamous ways are not necessarily opposed to the notion of having two or three wives. In fact, many of them have their “roll-ons” (township argot for mistresses;...