A-Z Database
As in a jumped-up person meaning pretentious and arrogant, dates from the early 19th century, and derives from the allusion of someone jumping or risi...
Jumper as the name of a loose, outer garment dates from the mid-19th century. It has nothing to do with the physical act of jumping. The OED says it p...
This is a curious one because of its apparent misspelling. 'Jumping Jehosphat' is a mild, American expletive that expresses surprise or adulation. It...
see months of the year
Jungle is a word of Indian origin from the Hindi jangal originally a dry, arid wasteland but in Anglo-Indian usage any wild, overgrown tangled vegetat...
British armed services slang for an Afro-Caribbean person dates from the 1950s.
Originally, in the early 18th century, junk meant a lump or piece of anything. The etymology is uncertain, but the OED ventures it perhaps derives fro...
Junket is an old word for a feast or merry-making and dates from the mid-1500s. As a word for a schoolboy spree, it enjoyed a revival in Britain durin...
US slang for drug addict dates from about 1923, from junk, which was also US slang for narcotics in general in the early 1920s, but is less heard in t...
This familiar expression meaning a deserved outcome or comeuppance is often misspelt as desserts and indeed Just Desserts is the title of a recipe boo...
Exactly what is needed; dates from the early 19th century of disputed origin but most likely a winning ticket in a raffle or lottery.
This expression describes something that is exactly what is needed or wanted and appears to be of American origin with the obvious allusion to a medic...
see kit and caboodle
So offensive is this word in English-speaking Africa that it is now classified as the k word and in this sense is similar to nigger. Its etymology, ho...
Kamikaze means divine wind in Japanese and was the name adopted by Japanese suicide pilots who flew their planes into US warships towards the end of W...