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Katie Beirne Fallon and Shaun Donovan knocking on wood in the Oval Office (2015). Knocking on wood (also phrased touching wood or touch wood) is an apotropaic tradition of literally touching, tapping, or knocking on wood, or merely stating that one is doing or intending to do so, in order to avoid "tempting fate" after making a favorable prediction or boast, or a declaration concerning one's ...
"Bob's your uncle" is an idiom commonly used in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries that means "and there it is", or "and there you have it", or "it's done". Typically, someone says it to conclude a set of simple instructions or when a result is reached. The meaning is similar to that of the French expression "et voilà!".
It is widely believed that the recent ascendancy of so as a sentence opener began in Silicon Valley. Michael Lewis, in his book The New New Thing, published in 1999, noted that "When a computer programmer answers a question, he often begins with the word 'so. '" Microsoft employees have long argued that the "so" boom began with them. [2] [3] [4]
That’s because the first person to say it did so while, you guessed it, jumping from a plane—and his name was Aubrey Eberhardt. Aubrey was a private in the U.S. Army during the 1940s, ...
"So mote it be" is a ritual phrase used by Freemasons, in Rosicrucianism, and more recently by Neopagans, meaning "so may it be", ... Say we so all per charyté". [2]
Bless me, how fat you are grown! – absolutely as round as a ball: – you will soon be as embonpoint [note 1] [1] (excuse my French) as your poor dear father, the major. "Excuse my French" appears an 1895 edition of Harper's Weekly, where an American tourist asked about the architecture of Europe says "Palaces be durned! Excuse my French."
Can you name any new protest songs?" Milano said, adding that generic songs about empowerment or change lack power. Those songs "still have their place, but it's no Bob Dylan or John Lennon, or ...
An adaptation of the Old English word atter meaning "poison", and closely related to the word adder for the venomous crossed viper. Lexicographers William and Mary Morris in Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins (1977) favour this derivation because "mad as a hatter" was known before hat making was a recognized trade. [ 1 ]