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449 entries found.

1950 in figurative sense, from literal use in certain forms of poker (1941), from wild (adj.) + card (n.1). The phrase was used occasionally c. 1900 in British and Irish writing to mean "drinking, free-spirited man."

La Tene (adj.)

1882 in archaeology in reference to La Tène, district at the end of Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland, where after c. 1860 relics were found from a prehistoric culture that dominated central Europe c. 3c. B.C.E.

home front (n.)

also homefront, 1918, from home (n.) + front (n.) in the military sense. A term from World War I; popularized (if not coined) by the agencies running the U.S. propaganda effort.

The battle front in Europe is not the only American front. There is a home front, and our people at home should be as patriotic as our men in uniform in foreign lands. [promotion for the Fourth Liberty Loan appearing in U.S. magazines, fall 1918]

en passant

French, literally "in passing," from present participle of passer "to pass" (see pass (v.)). In reference to chess, first attested 1818.

Homo sapiens (n.)

the genus of human beings, 1802, in William Turton's translation of Linnæus, coined in Modern Latin from Latin homo "man" (technically "male human," but in logical and scholastic writing "human being;" see homunculus) + sapiens, present participle of sapere "be wise" (see sapient).

Homo as the genus of the human race, within the order Primates, was formally instituted in Modern Latin 1758 by Linnaeus (originally also including chimpanzees). Used since in various Latin or pseudo-Latin combinations intended to emphasize some aspect of humanity, as in Henri Bergson's Homo faber "man the tool-maker" (in "L'Evolution Créatrice", 1907).

Iron Age

1590s, originally, as in Greek and Roman mythology, the last and worst age of the world; the archaeological sense of "period in which humans used iron tools and weapons" is from 1866 (earlier in this sense iron period, 1847).

res

Latin word once used in various phrases in English, often in legal language, where it means "the condition of something, the matter in hand or point at issue;" literally "thing" (see re). For example res ipsa loquitur "the thing speaks for itself;" res judicata "a point decided by competent authority."

grand prix

1863, French, literally "great prize," originally in English in reference to the Grand Prix de Paris, international horse race for three-year-olds, run every June at Longchamps beginning in 1863.

tea party (n.)

1772, from tea + party (n.). Political references to tea party all trace to the Boston tea party of 1773 (the name seems to date from 1824), in which radicals in Massachusetts colony boarded British ships carrying tea and threw the product into Boston Harbor in protest against royal taxation. It has been a model for libertarian political actions in the U.S. (generally symbolic), including citizen gatherings begun in early 2009 to protest government spending.

flea market (n.)

1910, especially in reference to the marché aux puces in Paris, so-called "because there are so many second-hand articles sold of all kinds that they are believed to gather fleas." [E.S. Dougherty, "In Europe," 1922].

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