Lexical Compendium

Wait... what is this? Sometimes I come across a word, phrase, idiom, quote, reference, bit of slang, person of interest, etc that either I don't know or I find amusing, interesting, etc. This is a collection of those items so that I can refer back to them in emails, texts, etc.

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down to raisins

An expression coined by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. It means something similar as "seeing the light at the end of the tunnel." In other words, a task or period is reaching its end.

When Lincoln was asked where this phrase came from, he told the story of a little girl who ate too much and then followed that up with a dessert of raisins. She became sick and, eventually, was throwing up only the raisins. Thus, she knew that she was nearly done.

I came upon this phase while watching Manhunt, S1E6.


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Tags: civil war, expression, lincoln

Date Added: 05 Jun 2024

"Now I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds"

An English translation of a line from The Bhagavad Gita, written in Sanskrit. A more accurate translation is "Time I am, destroyer of the worlds..."

I first encountered this expression in the late 90s on the CAKE BBS. It appears many times in popular culture:

  • Oppenheimer in Oppenheimer
  • Bolivar in s01e07 of Xmen '97
  • Captain Ramius' diary in Hunt for Red October
  • Caleb Smith in Ex Machina

And probably many more.


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Tags: hindu, shiva, krishna

Date Added: Unknown

Bees?

There is a "Cards Against Humanity" card that simply reads: "Bees?" It's so fatuous that it has become a common expression for me.

Some on the internet believe that this is a reference to an "Arrested Development" episode.


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Tags: games, bees

Date Added: Unknown

chookas

The word chookas is Australian slang and something performers traditionally say to each other to wish luck before a show. It's similar to the expression "break a leg."

Chook is Aussie slang for chicken. One explanation for how chookas came to be used in the performing arts is that if there was a full house, the theater company could afford a chicken dinner.

Other sources seem to indicate that it was originally pronounced choogas was was an abbreviation of the phrase "cheers and good wishes."

I first came across the word chookas while watching Deadloch (S1, E6).


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Tags: slang, vocabulary, aussie

Date Added: 01 Oct 2024

neologism

A neologism is a newly coined word or expression.


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Tags: vocabulary, neologism

Date Added: 30 May 2024

tilt at windmills

To tilt at windmills means to fight or pursue some imaginary adversary.

I've always found idioms to be an interesting part of language and this is one of my favorites. In Jr. High, my class read/translated Don Quixote de la Mancha, which is where this expression comes from.


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References:

Tags: idiom, Don Quixote

Date Added: 30 May 2024