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abandon hope all ye who enter here! Ironic but good-humoured welcoming phrase – a popular mistranslation of the words written over the entrance to Hell in Dante’s Divina Commedia (circa 1320). ‘All hope abandon, ye who enter here!’ would be a more accurate translation of the Italian, ‘lasciate ogni speranza voi ch’entrate!’

—abhors a vacuum PHRASES A format based on the maxim ‘Nature abhors a vacuum’ that François Rabelais quotes in its original Latin form, ‘natura abhorret vacuum’, in his Gargantua (1535). Galileo (1564–1642) asserted that it was the reason mercury rises in a barometer. An early appearance in English is, ‘The Effatum, That Nature abhors a Vacuum’, from Robert Boyle, A Free Enquiry Into the Vulgarly Receiv’d Notion of Nature (1685). ‘Nature abhors a straight line’ was a saying of the English garden landscaper Capability Brown (1715–83). Clare Boothe Luce, the American writer and socialite (1903– 87), is supposed to have said, ‘Nature abhors a virgin’, but this may just be a version of the line in her play The Women (1936): ‘I’m what nature abhors – an old maid. A frozen asset.’ ‘Nature abhors a vacuum and what appears ultimately to concern the Reagan Administration most of all is the possibility that President Mitterrand’s France will gradually abandon its traditional military protection of central Africa and the Sahara’ – Financial Times (12 August 1983); ‘I quickly developed a pear-shaped figure that testified to my indolent lifestyle. I became the archetypal also-ran that PE masters could barely bring themselves to talk to without risk of life-threatening apoplexy: they abhorred my idleness as Nature abhors a vacuum’ – The Guardian (24 June 1986).

abide with me See CHANGE AND DECAY.

above and beyond (the call of duty) Phrase expressing an outstanding level of service, used in tributes and such like. OED2 has several ‘above and beyonds’ but not this precise one. Above and Beyond was the title of an American TV series of military stories (circa 1996).

Abraham’s bosom Where the dead sleep contentedly. From Luke 16:23: ‘And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom.’ The phrase alludes to Abraham, first of the Hebrew patriarchs. Compare ARTHUR’S BOSOM.

absit omen See GESUNDHEIT.

absolutely, Mister Gallagher! / positively, Mister Shean! Phrases of agreement; roundabout ways of saying ‘yes’, taken from the American vaudevillians (Ed) Gallagher and (Al) Shean whose act flourished in the early part of the 20th century. The exchange was included in a popular song ‘Mr Gallagher and Mister Shean’ (1922) though, in that song, the order of words was ‘positively, Mister Gallagher / absolutely, Mr Shean’. Each syllable of the adverbs is emphasized – e.g. ‘pos-it-ive-ly’, ‘ab-so-lute-ly’.

accidents will occur in the best-regulated families A catchphrase used lightly to cover any domestic upset. The basic proverbial expression, ‘Accidents will happen’ was known by the 1760s; this full version by the 1810s. Best known in the form delivered by Mr Micawber in Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, Chap. 28 (1850): ‘“Copperfield,” said Mr. Micawber, “accidents will occur in the best-regulated families; and in families not regulated by…the influence of Woman, in the lofty character of Wife, they may be expected with confidence, and must be borne with philosophy”.’ Dickens had earlier used the saying in Pickwick Papers (1836–7) and Dombey and Son (1844–6).

(an) accident waiting to happen Hindsight phrase, frequently used in the wake of a disaster. This is the survivors’ and experts’ way of pointing to what, to them, seems the foreseeable and inevitable result of lax safety standards that will now probably be corrected only as a result of the tragedy. Much used in relation to the late 1980s spate of disasters in the UK (Bradford City football ground fire, Zeebrugge ferry overturning, Piper Alpha oil-rig explosion, Kings Cross Tube fire, Hillsborough football stadium crowd deaths). Used as the title of a 1989 book on the subject by Judith Cook. ‘Ignorance and neglect cost 51 lives [in the Marchioness boat disaster]…“You don’t need the benefit of hindsight to say this was an accident waiting to happen,” he said’ – Today (16 August 1991).

according to Cocker By strict calculation, exactly. Edward Cocker (1631–75) was an arithmetician who is believed to have written down the rules of arithmetic in a popular guide.

according to Hoyle Exactly; correctly; according to the recognized rules; according to the highest authority. The phrase comes from the name of the, at one time, standard authority on the game of whist (and other card games). Edmond Hoyle was the author of A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist (1742). ‘If everything goes according to Hoyle, I’ll go into semiretirement there’ – Melody Maker (21 August 1971).

(an) ace in the hole A hidden advantage or secret source of power. An American phrase used as the title of a Cole Porter song in the show Let’s Face It (1941), of a Billy Wilder film (US 1951) and of an Annie Proulx novel, That Old Ace In the Hole (2002). It came originally from the game of stud poker. A ‘hole’ card is one that is not revealed until the betting has taken place. If it is an ace, so much the better. DOAS dates the use of the expression, in a poker context, to the 1920s, OED2 to 1915. In British English, the nearest equivalent would be to talk of having an ace up one’s sleeve. ‘In the long haul…AM’s ace in the hole may be the $213 million net operating loss carryforward it still has left from its 1981–2 losses’ – The New York Times (6 May 1984).

(an) Achilles’ heel The vulnerable point of any person or thing. Referring to Achilles, the foremost warrior in the Trojan war, who sulked in his tent, was hero of the Iliad and was vulnerable only at the heel (in allusion to the story of the dipping of Achilles’ heel in the river Styx). ‘Divorce is the Achilles’ heel of marriage’ – Bernard Shaw, letter (2 July 1897). It was cited as a ‘dying metaphor’ by George Orwell, ‘Politics and the English Language’ in Horizon (April 1946). ‘If Oppenheimer has an “Achilles” heel, it is his overriding loyalty to his friends’ – Arthur Holly Compton, Atomic Quest (1956); ‘It is the refusal to condemn which is the Achilles heel of contemporary Christian psychology’ – Catholic Herald (28 January 1972).

(an) acid test A crucial test. Originally an ‘acid test’ involved the use of aqua fortis to test for gold. Cited as a ‘lump of verbal refuse’ by George Orwell, ‘Politics and the English Language’ in Horizon (April 1946). ‘The treatment accorded Russia by her sister nations in the months to come will be the acid test of their good will’ – President Woodrow Wilson, quoted in The Times (9 January 1918); ‘The acid test of any political decision is, “What is the alternative?“’ – Lord Trend, quoted in The Observer (21 December 1975); ‘Let’s get South Africa working. For we must together and without delay begin to build a better life for all South Africans. This is going to be the acid test of the government of national unity’ – Nelson Mandela, quoted in Financial Times (3 May 1994); ‘If the same weight is not given to the improvement of human capital as to market share, profit and other organisational priorities, small wonder the human resources function is often viewed as unrelated to the “real” goals of the company. The acid test here is: do the job descriptions of all staff (board of directors, executive, administration) include meaningful percentages of weights and time spent in subordinate development with examples of what this means in practice?’ – Financial Times (6 May 1994).

(an) action man A person who is given more to action than to thought, named after a boy’s doll that could be dressed in various military-type costumes with appropriate accoutrements. Prior to his marriage in 1981, Charles, Prince of Wales, was noted for his enthusiastic sporting activities in many fields. Coupled with his active service in the Royal Navy, such expenditure of energy caused him to be accorded this nickname. A report of a General Medical Council disciplinary inquiry in The Independent (29 March 1990) stated: ‘He told the hearing: “Mr Bewick is an Action Man, not a philosopher. Action Man’s advantage is that at the drop of a hat, he can go anywhere and do anything”.’

action this day Instruction phrase, for office use. ‘ACTION THIS DAY’, ‘REPORT IN THREE DAYS’ and ‘REPORT PROGRESS IN ONE WEEK’ were printed tags that Winston Churchill started using in February 1940 to glue on to memos at the Admiralty. Subtitled ‘Working with Churchill’, the book Action This Day (1968) is a collection of the reminiscences of those who had been closely associated with Churchill during the Second World War. ‘She [Margaret Thatcher] had the draft of that circular on her desk that night. She said “Action this day” and she got it. We didn’t stop to argue’ – Hugo Young, One of Us, Chap. 6 (1989).

(an) actor laddie An actor with the booming voice and declamatory manner of the Victorian and Edwardian stage. The expression presumably derives from the habit of adding the somewhat patronizing endearment ‘laddie’ when talking to junior members of their companies. The playwright Ronald Harwood singled out Frank G. Carillo as an example of the breed, from the early 1900s: ‘[He] intoned rather than talked, in a deep, trembling voice ideally suited to melodrama and he used it with equal fortissimo both on and off the stage.’ Sir Donald Wolfit, himself somewhat prone to this manner, described Carillo as one of the few actors he had actually heard use the word ‘laddie’.

actress See AS THE BISHOP.

act your age (also be your age)! Grow up, behave in a manner more befitting your years. Probably from the US and in use by the 1920s. An elaboration heard in the UK (1985) – act your age, not your shoe size (normal shoe sizes in the UK are in the range 4–12).

Adam’s rib The film Adam’s Rib (US 1949) is about husband and wife lawyers opposing each other in court and stars Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. It is also the title of a 1923 Cecil B. de Mille film about marriage, with biblical flashbacks. The phrase alludes to Genesis 2:21–2, which states that God made woman from one of Adam’s ribs. Compare SPARE RIB.

adjust See DO NOT.

(an) admirable Crichton A resourceful servant. Also applied – broadly – to anyone of intellectual accomplishment. The Admirable Crichton has been the title of a novel by Harrison Ainsworth (1837) and of J. M. Barrie’s play (1902; films UK 1918, 1957), the latter about a butler who succours his shipwrecked aristocratic employer on a desert island. The term had originally been applied to James Crichton (1560–85), Scottish traveller and scholar, by Sir Thomas Urquhart in The Jewel (1652).

adopt, adapt, improve Motto of the National Association of Round Tables of Great Britain and Ireland, from 1927 onwards. The Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) had said in a speech at the British Industries Fair in Birmingham (1927): ‘The young business and professional men of this country must get together round the table, adopt methods that have proved sound in the past, adapt them to the changing needs of the times and, whenever possible, improve them.’ The Round Table movement is a social and charitable organization for young professional and business men under the age of forty (after which age Rotary takes over).

adrift See CAST ADRIFT.

advance Australia Motto of the Commonwealth of Australia when the states united in 1901. In the 1970s and 1980s, as republicanism grew, it acquired the force of a slogan and was used in various campaigns to promote national pride (sometimes as ‘Let’s Advance Australia’). In 1984, ‘Advance Australia Fair’, slightly adapted, superseded ‘God Save the Queen’ as the country’s national anthem. This song, by Peter Dodds McCormick, had first been performed in Sydney in 1878, though the alliterative slogan ‘Advance Australia’ apparently existed earlier when Michael Massey Robinson wrote in the Sydney Gazette (1 February 1826): ‘“Advance Then, Australia”, / Be this thy proud gala /…And thy watch-word be “Freedom, For Ever!”’

advise and consent The title of Allen Drury’s novel about Washington politics Advise and Consent (1959; film US 1962) (not ‘advice’) is taken from US Senate Rule 38: ‘The final question on every nomination shall be, “Will the Senate advise and consent to this nomination?”’ In the US Constitution (Art. II, Sect. 2), dealing with the Senate’s powers as a check on the President’s appointive and treaty-making powers, the phrase includes the noun rather than the verb, ‘Advice and consent’. Originally, George Washington as President went in person to the Senate Chamber (22 August 1789) to receive ‘advice and consent’ about treaty provisions with the Creek Indians. Vice-President Adams used the words, ‘Do you advise and consent?’ Subsequent administrations have sent written requests.

(the) affluent society Label applied to Western society in the mid-20th century. John Kenneth Galbraith’s book The Affluent Society (1958) is about the effect of high living standards on economic theories that had been created to deal with scarcity and poverty. The resulting ‘private affluence and public squalor’ stemmed from an imbalance between private and public sector output. For example, there might be more cars and TV sets but not enough police to prevent them from being stolen. The Revd Dr Martin Luther King Jnr, in a 1963 letter from gaol, used the phrase thus: ‘When you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smouldering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society…then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.’ The notion was not new to the mid-20th century. Tacitus, in his Annals (circa AD 115) noted that ‘many, amid great affluence, are utterly miserable’ and Cato the Younger (95–46 BC), when denouncing the contemporary state of Rome said: ‘Habemus publice egestatem, privatim opulentiam [public want, private wealth].’ The punning tag of the effluent society, a commonplace by the 1980s, had appeared in Stan Gooch’s poem ‘Never So Good’ in 1964, and indeed before that.

after I’ve shampooed my hair, I can’t do a thing with it (or I washed my hair last night – and now…)! Commonplace excuse for one’s less than good appearance and a domestic conversational cliché. In Are You a Bromide? (1907), the American writer Gelett Burgess castigated people who spoke in what he called ‘Bromidioms’, like this one. The second part is sometimes given as a chorused response as though anticipating the cliché involved.

after the Lord Mayor’s show comes the shit-cart A reference to the anti-climactic appearance of a dust-cart and operative to clean up the horse manure that is left behind after the Lord Mayor’s annual show (really a procession) in the City of London. Partridge/Catch Phrases suggests that it is a late 19th century Cockney observation and one that could be applied to other from-the-sublime-to-the-ridiculous situations.

after you, Claude! / no, after you, Cecil! Catchphrase exchange spoken by Horace Percival and Jack Train playing two over-polite handymen, Cecil and Claude, in the BBC radio show ITMA (1939–49). It still survives in pockets as an admirable way of overcoming social awkwardness in such matters as deciding who should go first through a door. In the early 1900s, the American cartoonist Fred Opper created a pair of excessively polite Frenchmen called Alphonse and Gaston who had the similar exchange: ‘You first, my dear Alphonse’ – ‘No, no, you first, my dear Gaston.’

afternoon men Drunkards (‘afternoon’, presumably because they have imbibed a liquid lunch). ‘As if they had heard that enchanted horn of Astolpho, that English duke in Ariosto, which never sounded but all his auditors were mad, and for fear ready to make away [with] themselves…They are a company of giddy-heads, afternoon men.’ This is the final part of the quotation given by Anthony Powell as the epigraph to his novel Afternoon Men (1931). He gives the source as Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy. The only other use found of the term ‘afternoon men’ is from the same work. In the introductory ‘Democritus to the Reader’, Burton has: ‘Beroaldus will have drunkards, afternoon men, and such as more than ordinarily delight in drink, to be mad.’

age See ACT YOUR.

age before beauty! A phrase used (like AFTER YOU…) when inviting another person to go through a door before you. In the famous story, Clare Boothe Luce said it to Dorothy Parker, ushering her ahead. Parker assented, saying, ‘Pearls before swine.’ Mrs Luce described this account as completely apocryphal in answer to a question from John Keats, Parker’s biographer, for his book You Might as Well Live (1970). The saying presumably originated when people first started worrying about the etiquette of going through doors. It does not occur in Jonathan Swift’s Polite Conversation (1738), as one might have expected. A variant reported from New Zealand (1987) is dirt before the broom, though Partridge/Catch Phrases has this as the response to ‘Age before beauty’ (which it describes as a ‘mock courtesy’). Other versions are dust before the broom (recorded in Dublin, 1948) and the dog follows its master. Whichever phrase is used, it usually precipitates a response. An exchange between two boozy buffoons at a pub door in Posy Simmonds’s cartoon strip in The Guardian (19 May 1985) included these phrases: ‘“Certainly! Dogs follow their master!” “Dirt before the broom!” “Shepherd before sheep!” “Shit before shovel!”’ Another phrase to offer in reply is: grace before meat!

(the) age of anxiety Label for the mid-20th century. It was the title of a long poem by W. H. Auden, written 1944–6 – an expression of loneliness in the midcentury. It was the inspiration of Leonard Bernstein’s second symphony (1947–9), which became known as ‘The Age of Anxiety’, and was used as the score for a ballet (US 1950), also with the title.

(the) age of Aquarius The astrological age, lasting two thousand years, which was said to be beginning in the 1960s (following the Piscean Age). ‘This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius,’ sang the cast of the ‘American tribal love-rock musical’ Hair (1968), in what was to become something of a hippy anthem. This new age held forth the promise of more liberal values, world freedom and brotherhood, as well as promoting general optimism.

(the) age of innocence The Age of Innocence was the title of a novel published in 1920 by the American writer Edith Wharton. In it, she looked back on the New York of her youth and told the story of a love affair frustrated by the morals of the time. Presumably, the description ‘age of innocence’ is ironically applied to this earlier period.

(an) age of kings An Age of Kings was the title of a fifteen-part fortnightly BBC TV serialization of Shakespeare’s history plays from Richard II to Richard III, transmitted live in 1960. The phrase does not appear to have been used before. TV parodist Alan Melville came up with a version entitled ‘An Eternity of Kings’.

(the) age of miracles is past As with (the) age of chivalry is past, this proverb is now used more often in the ironic negative, i.e. when saying ‘the age of miracles is not past’ or ‘the age of chivalry is not dead’ out of feigned gratitude for a stroke of good fortune or an unexpected courtesy. In its original positive form, ‘miracles’ was current by 1602. ‘The age of chivalry is gone’ occurs in Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790). In about 1900, Oscar Wilde wrote in a letter: ‘[Frank Harris] keeps Bosie in order: clearly the age of miracles is not over.’ In Ira Gershwin’s lyric for the song ‘A Foggy Day (in London Town)’ (1937) are the lines: ‘I viewed the morning with alarm. / The British Museum had lost its charm. / How long, I wondered, could this thing last? / But the age of miracles hadn’t passed.’

Auntie/Aunty BBC (or plain Auntie/Aunty) The BBC was mocked in this way by newspaper columnists, TV critics and her own employees, most noticeably from about 1955 at the start of commercial television – the Corporation supposedly being staid, over-cautious, prim and unambitious by comparison. A BBC spokesman countered with, ‘An Auntie is often a much loved member of the family.’ The corporation assimilated the nickname to such effect that when arrangements were made to supply wine to BBC clubs in London direct from vineyards in Burgundy, it was bottled under the name Tantine. In 1979, the comedian Arthur Askey claimed that he had originated the term during the Band Waggon programme as early as the late 1930s. While quite probable, the widespread use of the nickname is more likely to have occurred at the time suggested above. Wallace Reyburn in his book Gilbert Harding – A Candid Portrayal (1978) ascribes the phrase to the 1950s’ radio and TV personality. The actor Peter Bull in I Know the Face, But… (1959) writes: ‘I would be doing my “nut” and probably my swansong for Auntie BBC.’ The politician Iain Macleod used the phrase when editing The Spectator in the 1960s. Jack de Manio, the broadcaster, entitled his memoirs To Auntie With Love (1967), and the comedian Ben Elton had a BBC TV show The Man from Auntie (1990–4).

au reservoir! A jokey valediction (obviously based on au revoir) popularized by E. F. Benson in his Lucia novels of the 1920s. The phrase may have existed before this, possibly dating from a Punch joke of the 1890s.

(an) auspicious occasion Cliché used in speech-making or at any time when portentousness or pomposity is demanded. In fact, almost any use of the word ‘auspicious’ is a candidate for clichédom: ‘Drinking around the imposing stone in order to celebrate some auspicious occasion’ – Charles T. Jacobi, The Printers’ Vocabulary (1888); ‘An auspicious debut on the platform was made the other day by Mr Winston Churchill, elder son of the late Lord Randolph Churchill’ – Lady (5 August 1897); ‘What about a glass of sherry to celebrate the auspicious occasion?’ – ‘Taffrail’, Pincher Martin (1916); ‘The longer the game wore on the more obvious it became that Forest could not even rise to this auspicious occasion, much as they yearned to give their manager the mother and father of all send-offs’ – The Sunday Times (2 May 1993).

Austin Reed service See IT’S ALL PART OF THE SERVICE.

Australia See ADVANCE.

author! author! The traditional cry of an audience summoning the playwright whose work it has just watched to come on the stage and receive its plaudits. Date of origin unknown. ‘After the final curtain [at the first night of Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892)] the applause was long and hearty, and Wilde came forward from the wings to cries of “Author!”’ – Richard Ellman, Oscar Wilde, Chap. 14 (1987); Author! Author! – title of a book (1962) by P. G. Wodehouse.

avoid ‘five o’clock shadow’ The expression ‘five o’clock shadow’ for the stubbly growth that some dark-haired men acquire on their faces towards the end of the day would appear to have originated in adverts for Gem Razors and Blades in the USA before the Second World War. A 1937 advert added: ‘That unsightly beard growth which appears prematurely at about 5 pm looks bad.’ The most noted sufferer was Richard Nixon, who may have lost the TV debates in his US presidential race against John F. Kennedy in 1960 as a result. In his Memoirs (1978), Nixon wrote: ‘Kennedy arrived…looking tanned, rested and fit. My television adviser, Ted Rodgers, recommended that I use television make-up, but unwisely I refused, permitting only a little “beard stick” on my perpetual five o’clock shadow.’

(to) avoid---like the plague To avoid completely, to shun. The OED2 finds the poet Thomas Moore in 1835 writing, ‘Saint Augustine…avoided the school as the plague’. The 4th-century St Jerome is also said to have quipped, ‘Avoid as you would the plague, a clergyman who is also a man of business.’ A well-established cliché by the mid-20th century. It may have been Arthur Christiansen, one of the numerous former editors of the Daily Express about that time, who once posted a sign in the office saying: ‘ALL CLICHÉS SHOULD BE AVOIDED LIKE THE PLAGUE.’

Avon calling! A slogan first used in the USA in 1886. The first Avon Lady, Mrs P. F. A. Allre, was employed by the firm’s founder, D. H. McConnell, to visit customers at home and sell them cosmetics.

award-winning---As used in promotion, especially of theatre, films and publishing. Depressing because it does not describe its subject in any useful way. Almost any actor in a leading role is likely to have received one of the many theatrical awards available at some time, just as any writer may (however illegitimately) be called a ‘best-selling author’ if more than just a few copies of his or her books have been sold. The phrase was in use by 1962. From the Evening Standard (London) (17 February 1993): ‘Why go on about the latest “award-winning documentary maker”? If you get a documentary on television, you win an award: it goes with the territory.’ ‘Giles Cooper, who died nearly twenty years ago, is described in today’s Times as “award-winning playwright Giles Cooper”. I’d have thought one of the few things to be said in favour of death was that it extinguished all that’ – Alan Bennett, diary entry for 30 June 1984, quoted in Writing Home (1994); ‘Awardwinning actor Michael Gambon can also be seen…David Hare has written many successful plays and screenplays, including his award-winning trilogy…the Pulitzer Prize winning author, John Updike…’ – Royal National Theatre brochure (26 June–28 August 1995); ‘We also introduce some new writers this week. Allison Pearson, the award-winning TV Critic of the year, joins us from the Independent on Sunday…Kenneth Roy, another new award-winning voice…will be writing a personal weekly peripatetic notebook’ – The Observer (27 August 1995).

away See AND AWAY.

aw, don’t embarrass me! British ventriloquist Terry Hall (b. 1926) first created his doll, Lenny the Lion, from a bundle of fox fur and papier-mâché – with a golf ball for a nose – in 1954. He gave his new partner a gentle lisping voice, and added a few mannerisms and a stock phrase that emerged thus: ‘He’s ferocious! (drum roll) / He’s courageous! (drum roll) / He’s the king of the jungle! (drum roll) / – Aw, don’t embarrass me! (said with a modest paw over one eye).’ Unusually for the originator of a successful phrase, Terry Hall said (in 1979) that he made sure he did not overuse it and rested it from time to time.

awful See AMUSING.

awkward See AS AWKWARD.

(the) awkward age Adolescence – when one is no longer a child but not yet a fully fledged adult. Current by the late 19th century and possibly a development of the French l’âge ingrat. Hence, The Awkward Age, the title of a novel (1899) by Henry James.

(the) awkward squad Of military origin and used to denote a group of difficult, uncooperative people, the phrase originally referred to a squad that consisted of raw recruits and older hands who were put in it for punishment. The phrase may also have been applied to a group of soldiers who are briefed to behave awkwardly and in an undisciplined fashion in order to test the drilling capabilities of an officer under training. Sloppy in Our Mutual Friend (1864–5) is described by Charles Dickens as ‘Full-Private Number One in the Awkward Squad of the rank and file of life’. The dying words of the Scots poet Robert Burns in 1796 are said to have been, ‘John, don’t let the awkward squad fire over me’ – presumably referring to his fear that literary opponents might metaphorically fire a volley of respect, as soldiers sometimes do over a new grave.

(I) awoke one morning and found myself famous Byron’s famous comment on the success of the first two cantos of Childe Harold in 1812 has become an expression in its own right. It was first quoted in Thomas Moore, The Letters and Journals of Lord Byron (1830).

AWOL ‘Absent WithOut Leave’ – unwarranted absence from the military for a short period but falling short of actual desertion. This expression dates from the American Civil War when offenders had to wear a placard with these initials printed on it. During the First World War, the initials were still being pronounced individually. It does not mean ‘absent without official leave’.

(to have an) axe to grind The expression meaning ‘to have an ulterior motive, a private end to serve’ would appear to have originated with an anecdote related by Benjamin Franklin in his essay ‘Too Much for Your Whistle’. A man showed interest in young Franklin’s grindstone and asked how it worked. In the process of explaining, Franklin – using much energy – sharpened up the visitor’s axe for him. This was clearly what the visitor had had in mind all along. Subsequently, Franklin (who died in 1790) had to ask himself whether other people he encountered had ‘another axe to grind’. Cited as a ‘dying metaphor’ by George Orwell in ‘Politics and the English Language’ in Horizon (April 1946). ‘Manhattan Cable showed that some of the most ordinary people are very good on TV. In Britain, where the idea of access is a familiar one, it’s still a very mediated and restricted thing where you have to have a politically correct axe to grind’ – The Guardian (24 October 1991).

aye, aye, that’s yer lot! Signing-off line of Jimmy Wheeler (1910–73), a British Cockney comedian with a fruity voice redolent of beer, jellied eels and winkles. He would appear in a bookmaker’s suit, complete with spiv moustache and hat, and play the violin. At the end of his concluding fiddle piece, he would break off and intone these words.

aye caramba See EAT MY SHORTS.

aye, well – ye ken noo! ‘Well, you know better now, don’t you!’ – said after someone has admitted ignorance or has retold an experience that taught a lesson. It is the punch line of an old Scottish story about a Presbyterian minister preaching a hell-fire sermon whose peroration went something like this: ‘And in the last days ye’ll look up from the bottomless pit and ye’ll cry, “Lord, Lord, we did na ken [we did not know]”, and the Guid Lord in his infinite mercy will reply…“Aye, well – ye ken noo!”’

ay thang yew! A distinctive pronunciation of ‘I thank you!’ picked up from the cry of London bus conductors by Arthur Askey for the BBC radio show Band Waggon (1938–39) and used by him thereafter. He commented (1979): ‘I didn’t know I was saying it till people started to shout it at me.’ Later, as I Thank You, it became the title of one of Askey’s films (1941).