hear them as easily in Leicester Square as in Mile End Road. It strikes the unwonted visitor to the Pavilion as very original when Stanley Lupino says of some one: “He has bats in the belfry.” It is not always grasped that the expression belongs to the music hall at large.’ Attempts have been made to derive ‘batty’, in particular, from the name of William Battie (1704–76), author of a Treatise on Madness, though this seems a little harsh, given that he was the psychiatrist and not the patient. On the other hand, there was a Fitzherbert Batty, barrister of Spanish Town, Jamaica, who made news when he was certified insane in London in 1839. The names of these two gentlemen merely, and coincidentally, reinforce the ‘bats in the belfry’ idea – but there do not seem to be any examples of either expression in use before 1900.
(a) bat’s squeak of sexuality Use of this phrase probably derives from Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited, Chap. 3 (1945): ‘As I took the cigarette from my lips and put it in hers, I caught a thin bat’s squeak of sexuality, inaudible to any but me’ (Charles Ryder of Lady Julia). A later use of ‘bat’s squeak’, not otherwise much recorded: at the Conservative Party Conference in 1981, a then upwardly rising politician called Edwina Currie was taking part in a debate on law and order. To illustrate some point, she held aloft a pair of handcuffs. Subsequently, the Earl of Gowrie admitted to having felt ‘a bat’s squeak of desire’ for Mrs Currie at that moment.
(the) Battle of Britain The urge to give names to battles – even before they are fought and won – is well exemplified by Winston Churchill’s coinage of 18 June 1940: ‘What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin.’ It duly became the name by which the decisive overthrowing of German invasion plans by ‘the Few’ is known. The order of the day, read aloud to every pilot on 10 July, contained the words: ‘The Battle of Britain is about to begin. Members of the Royal Air Force, the fate of generations is in your hands.’ Another Churchill coinage – ‘The Battle of Egypt’ (speech, 10 November 1942) – caught on less well.
(to wage a) battle royal Meaning ‘to take part in a keenly fought contest, a general free-for-all’, this term originated in cockfighting, or at least has been specifically used in that sport. In the first round, sixteen birds would be put into a pit to fight each other until only half the number was left. The knock-out competition would then continue until there was only one survivor. OED2 finds the phrase for general use by 1672; by 1860 for cockfighting.
battle-scarred (veterans) A mostly journalistic cliché. ‘Our leaders battle-scarred’ wrote Oliver Wendell Holmes in an open letter To General Grant (1865). In Nat J. Ferber, I Found Out (1939), it is related that once on the New York American the printing error ‘battle-scared hero’ was hastily corrected in a later edition and came out reading ‘bottle-scarred hero’. ‘Can a bunch of battle-scarred old pols…gang up to stop a brash young lawyer named Brian Mulroney?’ – Toronto Star (14 February 1976); ‘The man who made it possible – bringing a new lease of life to his own political career in the process – was Mr Peres, one of the most battle-scarred veterans of Israeli politics’ – The Sunday Telegraph (5 September 1993); ‘“Just be the benevolent old maestro, Bob, battle-scarred and wordly-wise in the ways of the biz,” Moir advised’ – Bob Monkhouse, Crying With Laughter (1993); ‘Battle-scarred veterans of the women’s movement can be forgiven for sighing wearily at some of this; like the youngsters who “think sex was invented the year they reached puberty,” she seems unaware that the Sixties movement was greatly about women’s right to love freely’ – The Observer (5 December 1993); ‘Okay, so he has more important priorities in life now like setting up a new wine bar with a partner, and the Dump Truck and his fellow young professional monsters will never have to worry about a 36-year-old battle-scarred dad-of-three from England, but he reckons he could make a sizeable mark in the amateur ranks for a couple of years’ – The Sunday Times (27 November 1994).
BBC See AUNTIE.
be afraid – be very afraid Slogan for film The Fly (US 1986) and also included as a line spoken by Geena Davis (Veronica) to a date of Seth Brundle’s (he is the man who half-turns into a fly): ‘No. Be afraid. Be very afraid.’
beam me up, Scotty! Catchphrase popularly associated with the US TV science-fiction series Star Trek (1966–9). According to Trekkers, however, Capt. Kirk (William Shatner) never actually said to Lt. Commander ‘Scotty’ Scott, the chief engineer, ‘Beam me up, Scotty!’ – which meant that he should transpose body into matter, or transport someone from planet to spaceship, or some such thing. In the fourth episode, however, he may have said, ‘Scotty, beam me up!’ The more usual form of the injunction was, ‘Enterprise, beam us up’ or, ‘Beam us up, Mr Scott.’
beans See AMOUNT TO.
Beanz meanz Heinz This slogan for Heinz Baked Beans in the UK (from 1967) is the type of advertising line that annoys teachers because it appears to condone wrong spelling. Johnny Johnson wrote the music for the jingle that went: ‘A million housewives every day / Pick up a tin of beans and say / Beanz meanz Heinz.’ ‘I created the line at Young & Rubicam,’ copywriter Maurice Drake stated in 1981. ‘It was in fact written – although after much thinking – over two pints of bitter in the Victoria pub in Mornington Crescent.’
bear See GLADLY MY CROSS-EYED.
(to) beard the lion in his den To confront a person with impunity. This phrase derives from the notion of taking a lion by the beard and partly from the use of the word ‘beard’ to mean the face. Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1, IV.i.12 (1591), has: ‘No man so potent breathes upon the ground, / But I will beard him’, but the ‘lion’ image seems first to have been employed in Tobias Smollet, Regicide, II.vii (1777): ‘Sooner wouldst thou beard The lion in his rage.’ W. S. Gilbert, Iolanthe (1882) has: ‘Beard the lion in his lair – None but the brave deserve the fair.’ R. D. Blackmore, Perlycross, II.iv.68 (1894), has the complete phrase: ‘Nothing less would satisfy her than to beard – if the metaphor applies to ladies – the lion in the den, the arch-accuser, in the very court of judgment.’
—bears eloquent testimony Pompous phrase used by writers of opinion columns and by speech-makers. Date of origin unknown. Listed in The Independent (24 December 1994) as a cliché of newspaper editorials and well established as such by that date. ‘Mr Hamilton said last night: “I entirely refute the allegations and the writ will make that perfectly clear.” When asked if there was any grain of truth in the Guardian report Mr Hamilton said: “My writ I think is eloquent testimony to the view that I have as to their veracity. Nobody issues a writ to launch a libel action for fun”’ – The Times (21 October 1994).
(the) beast of—Nickname formula. (1) The ‘Beast of Belsen’ was Josef Kramer, German commandant of the Belsen concentration camp during the worst period of its history from December 1944 to the end of the Second World War. He was executed for his crimes in 1945. (2) The ‘Beast/Bitch of Buchenwald’ was Ilse Koch (d. 1967), wife of the commandant of the concentration camp near Weimar. Infamous for having had lampshades made out of the skin of her victims. (3) The ‘Beast of Bolsover’ is Dennis Skinner (b. 1932), the aggressive and outspoken Labour MP for Bolsover in Derbyshire (since 1970). Noted for interrupting speeches and making loud comments in the House of Commons. (4) The ‘Beast of Jersey’ was E. J. L. (Ted) Paisnel, convicted of 13 sex offences against children and sentenced to 30 years imprisonment in 1971. The name was applied to him during the 11 years he evaded arrest on the island.
beasts of the field See BIRDS OF THE AIR.
(to) beat a path to someone’s door Sarah Yule claimed (1889) that
