A Word In Your Shell-Like. Nigel Rees
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).
amor vincit omnia [love conquers all] One of the best-known proverbial expressions of all. It is from Virgil’s Eclogues, No. 10, line 69. Chaucer’s Prioress had it on her brooch, as mentioned in ‘The General Prologue’ to The Canterbury Tales.
(—don’t) amount to a hill of beans Meaning, ‘—don’t amount to anything.’ One of the most remembered lines from the film Casablanca (US 1942) is the one in which Rick (Humphrey Bogart) says: ‘Ilsa, I’m no good at being noble, but it doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.’ An earlier use of the ‘hill of beans’ phrase – ‘Ancestors are a poor excuse for not amounting to a hill of beans’ – is quoted in Wolfgang Mieder, Talk Less and Say More: Vermont Proverbs (1986) and OED2 has an 1863 (US) citation of this same version. A parallel expression has ‘row of beans’. From P. G. Wodehouse, Psmith Journalist, Chap. 9 (1915): ‘Look at Everybody’s Magazine. They didn’t amount to a row of beans till Lawson started his “Frenzied Finance” articles.’
Amplex See EVEN YOUR BEST.
amusing, awful and artificial This is reputedly King James II’s description of St Paul’s Cathedral, London, using three words whose meanings have since changed. He meant that it was ‘pleasing, awe-inspiring, and skilfully achieved.’ The earliest citation found is in Simeon Potter’s Our Language (1976). But in William Kent’s An Encyclopedia of London (1937), it is rather Charles II who in 1675 approved a new design for St Paul’s because it was ‘very artificial, proper and useful.’ As all monarchs from King James I to Queen Anne seem to have had the remark ascribed to them, perhaps a true source for this phrase will never be found.
(the) anatomy of—A title format, of which the first notable use is The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621) by Robert Burton. That book used the word ‘anatomy’ in an appropriate manner, its subject being a medical condition (anatome is the Greek word for dissection). The modern vogue for ‘anatomies’ of this and that began with the film Anatomy of a Murder (US 1959) and was followed by Anthony Sampson’s book Anatomy of Britain, first published in 1962 and revised a number of times since.
ancestral vices/voices Ancestral Vices is the title of a novel (1980) by Tom Sharpe; Ancestral Voices is the title of the first volume of diaries (1975) by the architectural historian James Lees-Milne (1908–97). Both allude to the poem ‘Kubla Khan’ (1798) by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, which contains the lines: ‘…Five miles meandering with a mazy motion / Through wood and dale the sacred river ran, / Then reach’d the caverns measureless to man, / And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean: / And ‘mid