Where’d we get the expression “You bet your sweet bippy!”? It’s from Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, a zany television show from the late 1960s. The word bippy, by the way, means “butt.” The phrase “You...
Who you calling a jabronie? And what exactly is a jabronie? (Or a jaboney, jadroney, jambone, jiboney, gibroni, gibroney, gabroney, jobroni, jobrone, etc.) Grant traces this playful insult, meaning a “rube” or “loser,” to the...
Why do we say someone is making money hand over fist? Does it have to do with two competitors putting one hand over the other on a baseball bat to determine who’s up first? Or does it have to do with pulling a rope? This is part of a complete...
Yadda yadda yadda. Newman! No soup for you! The 1990’s sitcom Seinfeld popularized these expressions and more. Check out this Paul McFedries article from Verbatim. This is part of a complete episode.
Costanza wallet n. a bulging, overstuffed billfold or wallet. Etymological Note: After the character George Costanza in the the twelfth episode, The Reverse Peephole, of the ninth season of Seinfeld, which aired on January 15, 1998. In the episode...
put a nickel in someone
v. phr.— «Somebody put a nickel in him today.» —“The Early Show” by Jane Clayson CBS News Aug. 29, 2001. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)