Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
This is a list of idioms that were recognizable to literate people in the late-19th century, and have become unfamiliar since.. As the article list of idioms in the English language notes, a list of idioms can be useful, since the meaning of an idiom cannot be deduced by knowing the meaning of its constituent words.
A young boy wearing a dunce cap in class, from a staged photo c. 1906 1828 engraving showing a boy standing on a stool wearing a dunce cap with the ears of an ass. A dunce cap, also variously known as a dunce hat, dunce's cap or dunce's hat, is a pointed hat, formerly used as an article of discipline in schools in Europe and the United States—especially in the 19th and early 20th centuries ...
As the use of letters increased in popularity, guides began to emerge on how to correctly write and form a letter and as to what was proper, and what was not. Many of these Victorian conventions are a way of understanding tensions in nineteenth-century England, such as the urge to speak from the heart, but never more than was proper. [citation ...
2. A way of saying "people are strange" usually preceded by the words "nowt as". Primarily used in the North of England. queer as a clockwork orange 1. Very odd indeed. [267] 2. Ostentatiously homosexual. [267] Queer Street A difficult or odd situation (up Queer Street). [268] queer someone's pitch 1. Take the pitch of another street vendor ...
The word's true origin is unknown, but it existed in the Middle Scots period. [32] [33] News: The word news has been claimed to be an acronym of the four cardinal directions (north, east, west, and south). However, old spellings of the word varied widely (e.g., newesse, newis, nevis, neus, newys, niewes, newis, nues, etc.).
The word morbid came from the original Latin word morbidus, which meant 'sickly', 'diseased' or 'unwholesome'. [2] The word also has roots in the Latin word morbus, which meant 'sorrow', 'grief', or 'distress of the mind'. [3] The phrase appeared in the book Passing English of the Victorian Era (1909) by James Redding Ware. [1]
Translates to the words "boat" or "ship," means "escaping from prison" (an allusion to a lonely ship smoothly sailing in a large sea) Chikopokopo Translates to the word "helicopter," means "tractor" (an allusion to a tractor's noise in a quiet environment) Chibhonda A person who was homeless or living on the streets before they arrived to prison
The word "idiot" ultimately comes from the Greek noun ἰδιώτης idiōtēs 'a private person, individual' (as opposed to the state), 'a private citizen' (as opposed to someone with a political office), 'a common man', 'a person lacking professional skill, layman', later 'unskilled', 'ignorant', derived from the adjective ἴδιος idios 'personal' (not public, not shared).