A Word In Your Shell-Like

all’s fair in love, war and— The basic proverb here is ‘All is fair in love and war’, which CODP finds in the form ‘Love and war are all one’ by 1620 and as well established by the 19th century. But nowadays the extended form – to include almost anything that the speaker might wish, most frequently politics – is more common. In 1982, Leonard Miall concluded a BBC radio talk (‘Byways in a Broadcasting Career’) with: ‘I suppose that all’s fair in love, war and party politicals [i.e. broadcasts].’ Michael Foot MP was quoted in 1986 as having said, ‘I had better recall before someone else does, that I said on one occasion that all was fair in love, war and parliamentary procedure.’ ‘The Shadow Chancellor, Mr John Smith…said he did not expect to receive any special favours from his political opponents. “All is fair in love, war and parliamentary politics,” he added’ – The Guardian (23 January 1989).

all-singing, all-dancing The worlds of computing and finance have both taken to using a phrase whose origins are pure Hollywood. For once, it is possible to be very precise about the source of a piece of popular phraseology. First, the computing use. From a report in The Guardian (3 October 1984) about a new police computer called ‘Holmes’: ‘Sir Lawrence Byford is proud that Britain got there first. Holmes, he claims, is unique. “It should provide our detectives with unrivalled facilities when dealing with crimes such as homicides and serious sexual offences…it’s the all-singing all-dancing act.” The only thing it can’t do, it seems, is play the violin.’ And from a special report on computers in the same paper (24 June 1985): ‘I’m knocking these present notes together on the word-processor incorporated into Jazz, the all-singing, all-dancing “integrated” package from the Lotus Development Corporation.’ Partridge/Catch Phrases dates the start of the computing use to about 1970. The phrase is used every bit as much when writing about financial ‘packages’. From a special report in The Times (8 November 1985): ‘The City’s financial institutions have been busily preparing themselves for the changes. Many of the large stockbroking firms have forged links with banks: conceding their independence but benefiting from the massive capital injection which many believe will be necessary to cope with the new look all-singing-and-dancing exchange.’ The meaning is reasonably clear. What you should anticipate getting in each sphere is a multipurpose something or other, with every possible feature, that may or may not ‘perform’ well. A dictionary of jargon (1984) goes so far as to give the general business meaning as ‘super-glamorised, gimmicky, flashy’, when referring to a version of any stock product. As such, the phrase has been used in many other fields as well – not least in show business. The source? In 1929, when sound came to the movies, the very first Hollywood musical, MGM’s Broadway Melody, was promoted with posters bearing the slogan: ‘The New Wonder of the Screen! / ALL TALKING / ALL SINGING / ALL DANCING / Dramatic Sensation.’ Oddly enough, in that same year, two rival studios both hit on the same selling pitch. Alice White in Broadway Babes (using Warners’ Vitaphone system) was ‘100% TALKING, SINGING, DANCING’. And Radio Picture’s Rio Rita (with Bebe Daniels) was billed as ‘ZIEGFELD’S FABULOUS ALL-TALKING, ALL-SINGING SUPER SCREEN SPECTACLE’. It was natural that the studios should wish to promote the most obvious aspect of the new sound cinema but it is curious that they should all have used much the same phrase.

all Sir Garnet Meaning ‘all correct’, this phrase alludes to Sir Garnet Wolseley (1833–1913), a soldier noted for his organizational powers, who led several successful military expeditions 1852–5 and helped improve the lot of the Other Ranks. The expression was known by 1894. Wolseley is also celebrated as ‘The Modern Major-General’ in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance (1879). From the same source, Sir Garnet is the name of a boat in Coot Club, the novel (1934) by Arthur Ransome.

all sorts Street Talk (1986) defines this as ‘all sorts of people, things or activities. Often said pejoratively of people, as in, “You get all sorts in a neighbourhood like that”.’ The proverb ‘It takes all sorts to make a world’ was known by 1620. There may also be a modern allusion to Bassett’s Liquorice Allsorts, the brand of confectionery that comes in many different colours and shapes.

all’s well that ends well The Reverend Francis Kilvert’s diary entry for 1 January 1878 noted: ‘The hind axle broke and they thought they would have to spend the night on the road…All’s well that ends well and they arrived safe and sound.’ Is the allusion to the title of Shakespeare’s play All’s Well That Ends Well (circa 1603) or to something else? In fact, it was a proverbial expression before Shakespeare used it. CODP finds ‘If the ende be wele, than is alle wele’ in 1381, and points to the earlier form ‘Wel is him that wel ende mai’. See also under WAR AND PEACE.

all systems go! In a state of readiness to begin an enterprise. From the US space programme of the 1960s.

all that heaven allows Peggy Fenwick’s script for the film with this title (US 1955) has widow Cary (Jayne Wyman) falling for her gardener, Ron (Rock Hudson), to the consternation of her class-conscious friends. Despite Wyman’s quoting a hefty chunk from Thoreau’s Walden, no hint is given as to where the title of the film comes from. In fact, it comes from the poem ‘Love and Life’ by John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (1647–80). This was included in Quiller-Couch’s Oxford Book of English Verse (1900) – that great repository of quotations later to be used as film titles: ‘Then talk not of inconstancy, / False hearts, and broken vows; / If I by miracle can be / This live-long minute true to thee, / ‘Tis all that Heaven allows.’

all the news that’s fit to print This slogan was devised by Adolph S. Ochs when he bought The New York Times, and it has been used in every edition since – at first on the editorial page, on 25 October 1896, and from the following February on the front page near the masthead. It became the paper’s war cry in its 1890s’ battle against formidable competition in New York City from the World, the Herald and the Journal. At worst, it sounds like a slogan for the suppression of news. However, no newspaper prints everything. It has been parodied by Howard Dietz as ‘All the news that fits we print’.

all the President’s men Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward gave the title All the President’s Men to their first Watergate book (1974; film US 1976). It might seem to allude to the lines from the nursery rhyme ‘Humpty Dumpty’ (first recorded in 1803): ‘All the king’s horses / And all the king’s men, / Couldn’t put Humpty together again.’ There is also a Robert Penn Warren novel (1946; filmed US 1949), All the King’s Men, based on the life of the southern demagogue Huey ‘Kingfish’ Long. More directly, the Watergate book took its title from a saying of Henry Kissinger’s at the time of the 1970 Cambodia invasion: ‘We are all the President’s men and we must behave accordingly’ – quoted in Kalb and Kalb, Kissinger (1974).

all the world and his wife Meaning, ‘everybody’ – though the phrase is in decline now after the feminism of the 1970s. Christopher Anstey in The New Bath Guide (1766) has: ‘How he welcomes at once all the world and his wife, / And how civil to folk he ne’er saw in his life.’ Jonathan Swift included it in Polite Conversation (1738): ‘Who were the Company? – Why; there was all the World and his Wife.’ There is an equivalent French expression: ‘All the world and his father’. A letter from Lord Byron to Thomas Moore (29 February 1816) has: ‘I am at war with “all the world and his wife” or rather, “all the world and my wife” are at war with me.’ From F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Chap. 4 (1926): ‘On Sunday morning while church bells rang in the villages alongshore, the world and its mistress returned to Gatsby’s house and twinkled hilariously on his lawn.’

all the world loves a lover This modernish proverbial saying was used by James Agate in a speech on 17 December 1941 (reported in Ego 5, 1942). It would appear to be an adaptation of the established expression, ‘Everybody/all the world loves a lord’ (current by 1869) – not forgetting what the 1st Duke of Wellington apparently once said: ‘Soldiers dearly love a lord’. Almost a format saying: Stephen Leacock in Essays and Literary Studies (1916) has: ‘All the world loves a grafter – at least a genial and ingenious grafter – a Robin Hood who plunders an abbot to feed a beggar’; ‘All the world loves a dancer’ – the Fred Astaire character in the film Swing Time (US 1936).

all things bright and beautiful The popular hymn (1848) by Mrs Cecil Frances Alexander, of which this is the first line, is still notorious for its other famous lines about (THE) RICH MAN IN HIS CASTLE (THE POOR MAN AT HIS GATE. It also provided the author James Herriot with new titles for his collected volumes about life as a vet – books originally called It Shouldn’t Happen To a Vet, Let Sleeping Vets Lie, Vets Might Fly, etc. When these titles were coupled together in three omnibus editions especially for the US market (from 1972), Mrs Alexander’s hymn was plundered and they became All Things Bright and Beautiful, All Creatures Great and Small, and All Things Wise and Wonderful. The Lord God Made Them All was given to a further original volume.

all this and Heaven too As acknowledged in Rachel Fields’s novel with the title All This and Heaven Too (1939; film US 1940), Matthew Henry, the English Bible commentator (d. 1714), ascribed the saying to his minister father in his own Life of Mr Philip Henry (1698). Compare the film title All This and World War II (US 1976) and the classic Daily Express newspaper headline on Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation day (2 June 1953): ‘ALL THIS – AND EVEREST TOO’, announcing the conquest of the world’s highest mountain by a British-led expedition.

(an) all-time low Meaning, ‘to the lowest point on record’. Probably American in origin, by the early 20th century. Could the phrase have first referred to weather temperatures? Conversely, there is also (an) all-time high, but perhaps less frequently. ‘Brings cost of power to new all-time low’ – Saturday Evening Post (10 June 1933); ‘British prestige sunk to yet another all-time low’ is included in the parody of sportswriters’ clichés by David Frost and Peter Cook included in the book That Was The Week That Was (1963); ‘A new all-time low in political scurviness, hoodlumism’ – Germaine Greer, The Female Eunuch (1970); ‘Tory MP Phil Gallie was even prompted to predict the party could gain a seat, despite pundits’ claims of likely Tory losses and the party’s crushing all-time low of 13% in the polls’ – The Sunday Times (1 May 1994); ‘What is also significant about BP’s share rise to 386p last week is that it has brought the prospect of a serious assault on the all-time high of 418p much nearer the day’ – The Observer (1 May 1994).

all we want is the facts, ma’am (or just the facts, ma’am). From the American TV series Dragnet (1951–8, revived 1967–9). Sgt Joe Friday (played by Jack Webb) had a staccato style of questioning. These were probably the first big phrases to catch on in Britain after the start of commercial TV in 1955. The phrase ‘all we want is the facts’ was, however, already a cliché when importunate journalists were represented in theatrical sketches. In ‘Long-Distance Divorce’, a revue sketch from Nine Sharp (1938), Herbert Farjeon put the phrase in the mouth of a British reporter interviewing a Hollywood star.

all women look the same in the dark Contemptuous male view of women as sexual objects – sometimes, ‘they all the look the same in the dark’. An established view by the mid-20th century at least. The least politically correct phrase in this book. Compare the similar expression you don’t look at the mantelpiece when you’re poking the fire (an old joke revived by John Osborne in The Entertainer, 1957); Ovid’s more felicitous and diplomatic version in his Ars Amatoria (circa 2 BC); ‘The dark makes every woman beautiful’; and the English proverb (known by 1546), ‘All cats are grey in the dark’. Robert Herrick appeared to say much the same in ‘No Difference i’ th’ Dark’ (1648): ‘Night makes no difference ‘twixt the Priest and the Clerk; / Joan as my Lady is as good i’ th’ dark.’

(the) almighty dollar An early indication of the currency’s all-powerful role in American life. ‘The almighty dollar is the only object of worship’ – Philadelphia Public Ledger (2 December 1836). In fact, this possible first use of the term ‘almighty dollar’ had just been preceded by Washington Irving’s statement in Knickerbocker Magazine (12 November 1836): ‘The almighty dollar, that great object of universal devotion throughout our land.’ Mark Twain took up the theme in his Notebooks (1935): ‘We Americans worship the almighty dollar! Well, it is a worthier god than Hereditary Privilege.’ Earlier, Ben Jonson in his poem ‘Epistle to Elizabeth, Countess of Rutland’ from The Forest (1616) wrote of ‘almighty gold’.

almost a gentleman Bill matter (i.e. the descriptive line that appeared on posters) of the British music-hall comedian Billy Bennett (1887–1942). John Osborne took it as the title of his second volume of memoirs (1991). Compare Daisy Ashford, The Young Visiters, Chap. 1 (1919): ‘I am not quite a gentleman but you would hardly notice it but can’t be helped anyhow.’

along came a spider The title of a cop film (US 2001) starring Morgan Freeman is taken from the nursery rhyme ‘Little Miss Muffet’, known since 1805 and containing the lines (properly), ‘There came a big spider / Who sat down beside her / And frightened Miss Muffet away.’ ‘Along came a spider’ is the more usual American version, however. People like to think that Miss Muffet was Patience, the daughter of Dr Thomas Muffet, an entomologist who died in 1604. If he had been an arachnologist, that would have been even neater.

altered See CASE IS.

altered states Where drugs take you to. Altered States is the title of a novel (1979; film US 1980) by Paddy Chayevsky (screen credit as ‘Sidney Aaron’). This is a sci-fi thriller about genetic experimentation or, as one of the film guides puts it, about a ‘psychophysiologist who hallucinates himself back into primitive states of human evolution, in which guise he emerges to kill’. Might there be a connection with what Dr Albert Hofmann observed of his discovery, the psychedelic drug LSD? He noted in his diary for 1943: ‘An intense stimulation of the imagination and an altered state of awareness of the world.’

although I says it as shouldn’t Phrase of excuse before uttering an indiscretion. Since the 17th century.

always leave them wanting more Proverbial expression in the world of entertainment. From The Independent (8 May 1996): ‘Franz Welser-Möst will doubtless have seen the irony in stepping down as music director of the London Philharmonic with a Requiem…But there is an old theatrical adage that says “Always leave them wanting more”. And – surprise, surprise – I do believe he has.’

always merry and bright The British comedian Alfred Lester (1872–1925) is principally associated with this phrase, although it crops up in all sorts of other places. As ‘Peter Doody’, a lugubrious jockey in the Lionel Monckton/Howard Talbot/Arthur Wimperis musical comedy The Arcadians (1909), he had it as his motto in a song, ‘My Motter’. Punch quoted the phrase on 26 October 1910. Somerset Maugham in a letter to a friend (1915) wrote: ‘I am back on a fortnight’s leave, very merry and bright, but frantically busy – I wish it were all over.’ An edition of The Magnet from 1920 carried an ad for Merry and Bright – a comic paper. P. G. Wodehouse used the phrase in The Indiscretions of Archie (1921). Larry Grayson suggested that it was used as the billing for Billy Danvers (1884–1964), the British variety entertainer, and so it was, but he may also have used ‘Cheeky, Cheery and Chubby’.

always partridge See SEMPER PERDRIX.

always steer towards the gunfire Tackle matters head on. Originally from naval warfare. Or is it ‘head towards’?

always true to you in my fashion The song with this title by Cole Porter from Kiss Me Kate (1948) echoes, consciously or unconsciously, the line ‘I have been faithful to thee, Cynara! in my fashion’ from the poem ‘Non Sum Qualis Eram’ (1896) by Ernest Dowson.

always verify your references In 1949 Winston Churchill gave an inaccurate account to the House of Commons of when he had first heard the words ‘unconditional surrender’ from President Roosevelt. Subsequently, in his The Second World War, Vol. 4 (1951), Churchill wrote: ‘It was only when I got home and searched my archives that I found the facts as they have been set out here. I am reminded of the professor who in his declining hours was asked by his devoted pupils for his final counsel. He replied, “Verify your quotations”.’ Well, not exactly a ‘professor’, and not exactly his dying words, and not ‘quotations’ either. Dr Martin Routh (1755–1854) was President of Magdalen College, Oxford, for sixty-three years. Of the many stories told about Routh, Churchill was groping towards the one where he was asked what precept could serve as a rule of life to an aspiring young man. Said Routh: ‘You will find it a very good practice always to verify your references, Sir!’ The story was first recorded in this form in July 1878, as Churchill and his amanuenses might themselves have verified. In 1847, Routh gave the advice to John Burgon, later a noted Dean of Chichester, who ascribed it to Routh in an article in the Quarterly Review (and subsequently in his Lives of Twelve Good Men, 1888 edn). Perhaps Churchill was recalling instead the Earl of Rosebery’s version, given in a speech on 23 November 1897: ‘Another confirmation of the advice given by one aged sage to somebody who sought his guidance in life, namely, “Always wind up your watch and verify your quotations”.’

amaze me! See ASTONISH ME.

amazing grace Most people are familiar with the hymn ‘Amazing Grace’ from the great popular success it had when sung and recorded by Judy Collins in the early 1970s. The words of the hymn were written in the 17th century by John Newton (1725–1807), a reformed slavetrafficker. He (together with the poet William Cowper) wrote the Olney Hymnbook of 1779, and this is but one example from that work. The slightly complicated thing is that the tune to which ‘Amazing Grace’ now gets sung is a traditional tune – it is an old American one, though some say that it was an anonymous Scottish tune before this.

amber nectar Nectar was the (sweet) drink of the gods in classical mythology. ‘Amber fluid’ and ‘amber liquid’ are both Australianisms acknowledged by the Macquarie Dictionary (1981) for beer (particularly amber-coloured lager). Put all this together and you have the term ‘amber nectar’ used by Paul Hogan in 1980s’ TV commercials in Britain for Foster’s. Earlier examples: in 1713, the London and Country Brewer was referring to ‘the amber-coloured Malt’; ‘Barrel of amber’ and ‘amber fluid’ are terms used about beer in Chicago Gang Wars in Pictures, X Marks the Spot (1930); ‘Amber-coloured fluid’ was a term for cocktails used in the novels of the British-born writer E. Phillips Oppenheim (1866–1946).

Amen Corner (1) A place near St Paul’s Cathedral, London, where monks would conclude saying the Pater Noster as they processed on Corpus Christi Day. Hence the other place names: Paternoster Row, Ave Maria Lane, Creed Lane.

(2) (in US use by 1860) The name given to the part of a church or meeting house where people sat who used to assist the preacher by calling out the responses, especially ‘Amen’.

(3) The name of a British pop group of the late 1960s.

America can’t stand pat ‘To stand pat’, meaning ‘to keep a fixed position or belief, to stand fast’, may have originated in the game of poker, in which you can decline to exchange the cards you are dealt. A ‘pat hand’ is one that is exactly suited to your purpose. In the 1960 US presidential election, John F. Kennedy pointed to the old slogan ‘Stand pat with McKinley’ as an example of Republican reaction. Richard Nixon countered with ‘America can’t stand pat’ – until it was politely pointed out to him that he was married to a woman with that name.

American as apple pie The OED2 does not find this expression before 1977. However, Flexner (1976) adds that ‘the apple itself is even more American than apple pie and Americans have used the word often’. Confirming the position of the apple as central to American life, Flexner also adds: ‘Until the 20th century citrus boom, apples – raw, in cider, and cooked in many dishes – were the most popular and talked about fruit in America.’

American Caesar See BUTCHER.

(the) American dream An expression used to describe the ideals of democracy and standards of living that inspired the founding of the United States. Probably coined by J.T. Adams in The Epic of America (1931). Before that, in ‘America the Beautiful’ (1893), Katharine Lee Bates had written of a ‘patriot dream that sees beyond the years’. The American Dream is the title of a play (1961) by Edward Albee, and An American Dream (1965) is a novel by Norman Mailer.

American Gothic Title of a painting (1930) by Grant Wood (1892–1942) that shows an American farm couple posing stiffly in front of their Gothic house. The man in overalls carries a pitchfork. The equally dour woman wears an apron. It has been asserted that she is supposed to be his daughter rather than wife. Whatever the case, the artist used his own sister and his dentist as models. Wood’s treatment of them has been described as ‘half epic, half ironic’. Hence, American Gothic – the title of a horror movie (US 1988).

American pie American Pie was the title of a rites-of-passage film (US 1999) that follows the famous song ‘American Pie’ (1971), written and performed by Don McLean. This was a tribute to Buddy Holly and full of allusions to 1960s’ America. It has been claimed that ‘American Pie’ was the name of the aircraft in which Holly was flying when he died but this has been specifically denied by Don McLean. Presumably, if any particular pie was being evoked it was apple pie. See also under JACOB’S JOIN.

amid the glare of television lights See UNDER THE GLARE.

am I not a man and a brother? Accompanying a picture of a kneeling Negro slave in chains, this slogan appeared on a pottery cameo made by Josiah Wedgwood in about 1790. Subsequently, it was frequently reproduced during the fight against slavery and adopted by the Anti-Slavery Society. It also appears in Chap. 6 of Charles Kingsley, The Water Babies (1863).

am I right, or am I right? An expression brooking no debate. From American show biz, one suspects. In P. G. Wodehouse & Guy Bolton, Bring On the Girls, Chap. 9 (1954) there is: ‘“It’s no good for a revue, Flo [Ziegfeld]. It needs a situation back of it. It needs a guy named Bill and the girl who loves him.” He turned to Plum [Wodehouse]. “Am I right or am I right?”’ It is also in the script of the films Gypsy (US 1962) and Shampoo (US 1975). Compare: ‘Am I wet, or am I wet?’ from Henry Reed, A Very Great Man Indeed (1953) and what Mae West asks in I’m No Angel (1933): ‘Is that elegant, or is that elegant?’ It builds of course on the more usual expression ‘am I wrong or am I right?’ The format endures: ‘Is that funny or is that funny?’ – from the BBC radio show Round the Horne (10 April 1966); ‘[Of a dog] is he great or is he great?’ – Thames TV, Rock Follies (2 March 1976); ‘Is that a great theme or is that a great theme?’ – same show (9 March 1976).