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Using Eighteenth Century Collections Online, I found this note at the end of an anti-Catholic pamphlet titled A Protestant's Revolution (Dublin, 1734), where other pamphlets by the same publisher ("S. …

The phrasing is grammatical within the dialects that use it but seldom used in published writing. Scholar Lawrence Horn, in a paper on the subject (1), calls this usage the "personal dative" pronomina …

The short answer is that we don't know for sure. Sans serif is a compound formed in English between the long-used English preposition from French sans and serif, most likely invented by printers creat …

The association between primrose and pleasure comes from its status as an early spring flower, and that flower's association with maidens and pleasure. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the …

Is there any evidence to suggest that readers understood pick in the rhyme as steal? No. The best evidence would come from direct treatments of the poem that acknowledge the alternate reading. For ins …

The phrase emerges from two related meanings of "top," was a common greeting throughout the United Kingdom in the 19th century, and fell out of use only to be revived as a so-called Irish expression b …

There is a gross rule that will help you understand usages like this in early English literature: If a body fluid is mentioned alongside or in place of an emotion, assume that they (a) literally …

When was Cat-o-Nine-Tails first used? The earliest instance for a proximity search of cat, nine, and tails in Early English Books Online is in The English rogue described, in the life of Meriton Latro …

The short answer is that, whatever the origin, the usage tracks into racist stereotypes about Black people and for that reason should be used with great care if not avoided entirely. "Crazy" Is Connec …

The earliest text I can find using the expression dates to 1758, in "Extract of a Letter from Albany, August 14, 1758" in the August 21, 1758 edition of the New-York Gazette, or the Weekly Post-Boy, a …

The term most likely emerged as a research term. Here is the citation information and abstract for a 1988 article that describes sex reassignment as "gender confirmation": Laub, D. R., et al. “Vagino …

The early usages I've been able to find date from the late sixteenth century. Here's the earliest dated usage, from the book Albions England by William Warner (1597), p. 187: Vnto the Cuckooe, ouerki …

The sentiment, if not the exact phrase, has occurred earlier in the 20th century. Here is Along These Streets (1942), p. 210 (Google Books), which connects the phrase to a hypothetical revolution: Th …

The Routledge Dictionary of American Slang and Unconventional English (2018) traced the phrase back to 1994: the female breasts US, 1994: One phrase sums up how I feel about them: Sweater Puppies - …

"I'll be dipped," or the less polite "I'll be dipped in shit," meaning "I'm surprised," is most likely from the American South. One commentator, Sadie Smith, gives her personal experience in the Paris …