In Ken Cage’s Gayle: The Language of Kinks and Queens: a History and Dictionary of Gay Language in South Africa (2003)
“You are such a cheese.” in Samuel Bracebridge Hemyng’s Eton School Days (1864). “There’s more f**king cheese on your knob than hair on your block.” in J.H. “As to the way in which yer emptied my pockets – yes but not as to the time nor manner when you will restore the cheese!” in Ned Buntline’s The G’hals of New York (1850). BLAKE letter 15 April in Joint (1972) 19: To report these unsavory and totally lost creatures is called ‘ratting’ or ‘cheese-eating’.Ĭ) Gypsy, gypsies were commonly believed to be thieves throughout much of history “A bad one! I’ll eat my hat if he is not a bad one.”ĭ) It was used as a term for informing on and betraying other criminals in the 1950sġ951 J. Which term can refer to money, bodily secretions, or an unpleasant person?Ī)Ğxcessive attention to a lady’s hair (1960s)ī) Obsession, derived from the (over-)watchful eye of a beekeeper on his hives (obsolete)ĭ) Sex in a confined space to which others may be witnessĭo these daffodils look drunk? Answers to the quiz below…ĭrunk as Chloe is Australian slang dating from 1789 drunk as a rat dates from 1589 and drunk as a cootie from 1827 in Massachusetts Spy Which of the following is NOT a “stink” slang term?
Where did the term “gyp” - meaning to deceive or defraud - originally come from?Ī) Gypsum, mineral used for plaster of Paris among other things and used to deceive people about purchases which would quickly crumble laterĬ) Gypsy, gypsies were commonly believed to be thieves throughout much of historyĭ)Ě corruption of “chip,” an obsolete term for a counterfeit coin “Cheese-eating” first became suspicious in the United States when:Ī) The Simpson’s character Groundskeeper Willie’s called the French, “cheese-eating surrender monkeys” in 1995ī)ĝonald Rumsfeld referred to the French as “cheese-eating surrender monkeys” upon the French government’s refusal to become involved in the Iraq war in 2003Ĭ) The character Charley Malloy says “People I may know … you mean eat cheese for ya?” in On the Waterfront (1964)ĭ) It was used as a term for informing on and betraying other criminals in the 1950s In Dickens’s Oliver Twist, what does Mr Grimwig threaten to eat? What is the first recorded use of “wham” meaning to hit or strike?Ī) “Wear him down wit’ dat left an’ den wham him wit’ de right.” in Charles Van Loan’s ‘On Account of a Lady’ in Taking the Count (1915).ī) “Wham, wham, re, bop, boom, bam.” The title of Paul Whiteman’s jazz instrumental (1940).Ĭ) “Who‥not only hit upon this dainty amendment, but coax’d many of the old licensed matrons‥to open their faculties afresh, in order to have this whim-wham of his inserted.” in Laurence Sterne’s The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy (1760).ĭ) “Wham! A beautiful corner kick.” in Anthony Buckeridge’s Jennings Goes To School (1950). Identify the cockney rhyming slang for “water”: 1951 (28): “In Detroit, someone who once would be called a drip or a square is now, regrettably, a nerd, or in a less severe case, a _.” We dug through a few of the 10.3 million words and over 53,000 entries - definitions of 100,000 words with over 413,000 citations - to come up with a little quiz to celebrate. Never mind if you’ve got the heebie-jeebies, how did we get that word? Winner of the Dartmouth Medal for RUSA/ALA Outstanding Reference Source and 2011 Booklist Editors’ Choice, Green’s Dictionary of Slang is a remarkable collection of this often reviled but endlessly fascinating area of the English language.