Stiff upper lip

This expression has become so definitive of the British phlegmatic character, especially the British military that it comes as a surprise to find that the expression is originally American! All the earliest citations are American dating from the early 19th century. It was not until the late 19th century that it started to appear in British publications but they were only repeating what had already been invented in America. The American poet Phoebe Cary (1824-1871) even wrote a poem entitled Keep a Stiff Upper Lip long before the expression was widely adopted by Victorian England.