A-Z Database
To act in an obsequious manner dates in English from the late 18th/early 19th century from the Chinese k’o-t’ou, which means, knock head and is the an...
Kremlin is Russian for fortress and would be the equivalent of castle in English. Since the 1920s, it has become a metonymy for the Russian government...
From the Greek kudos meaning fame, glory or renown, entered the language as British university slang in the late 18th century.
A fanciful place of dreamy unreality that popular American etymology would have us believe derives from L.A. or Los Angeles with its connotations of H...
Posh, affected, either in speech or manner, this expression dates from the mid-19th century and is imitative of what it describes. Sometimes appears a...
Laanie, variously spelt larny, larnie and sometimes lani is South African informal for posh or fancy. It is thought to derive from Afrikaans but other...
This is work done for the sheer pleasure of it, without seeking payment or reward. The source is the New Testament Thessalonians I, 1:3, “Remembering...
Devoid of brightness or quality; coined by Shakespeare to describe the eyes in As You Like it (1600) Act II, Scene V “looking on it with lack-lustre e...
An adjective used to describe someone as lethargic or listless, which dates from the late 18th century. This in turn derives from a much earlier expre...
A loan word from the French laquais meaning a footman or valet and in this sense dates from the mid-1500s. From the 1600s onwards is used figuratively...
British informal for uncouth, rowdy, boisterous and describes the unruly behaviour of young male adolescents. It derives from the concept of being one...
British informal and is the female equivalent of behaving in a laddish manner. It dates from the 1990s. See Laddish.
Celebratory shout at soccer matches in South Africa when a goal has been scored. It is in fact Zulu, meaning ‘it thunders’.
see Lord and Lady Muck
see Easy virtue