it is said that Hezekiah could not put his trust in Egypt if the Assyrians made war on Jerusalem: ‘Lo, thou trustest in the staff of this broken reed…whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it.’ In II Kings 18:21, a similar passage has ‘bruised reed’.
(a) Bronx cheer A noise of derisive disapproval. DOAS suggests that this form of criticism (known by 1929) originated at the National Theater in the Bronx, New York City, although the Yankee baseball stadium is also in the same area.
broom See AGE BEFORE.
broomstick See LIVE OVER THE.
brother See AM I NOT; BIG BROTHER; CRY ALL THE.
brother of the more famous Jack Brother of the More Famous Jack is the title of a novel (1982) by the English novelist Barbara Trapido (b. 1941). It refers neither to characters in the book nor to Robert and John F. Kennedy (as perhaps might be supposed). No, Chap. 4 has: ‘Yeats, William Butler…Brother of the more famous Jack, of course.’ The Irish poet W. B. Yeats did indeed have a brother, Jack, who was a leading artist. Often alluded to. From Robert Stephens, Knight Errant (1995): ‘The stars were Claude Hulbert, brother of the more famous Jack, his wife Delia Trevor, and another fine comedian called Sonny Hale.’ From Michael Kerrigan, Who Lies Where (1995): ‘Bankside was, of course, theatreland in the seventeenth century. Edmund Shakespeare, brother of the more famous William, is buried here.’
brothers See BAND OF.
brought to a satisfactory conclusion ‘Satisfactory conclusion’ on its own was known by 1825. The full phrase was cited as a ‘resounding commonplace’ by George Orwell, ‘Politics and the English Language’ in Horizon (April 1946). ‘There Richard Cattell, who had unique experience in repairing inadvertently damaged common bile ducts, brought this sad episode to a more or less satisfactory conclusion’ – The Daily Telegraph (19 May 1994).
brown See DON’T SAY.
Brown Eminence See EMINENCE GRISE.
(to earn/win) brownie points Originating in American business or the military and certainly recorded before 1963, this has nothing to do with Brownies, the junior branch of the Girl Guides, and the points they might or might not gain for doing their ‘good deed for the day’. Oh no! This has a scatological origin, not unconnected with brown-nosing, brown-tonguing, arse-licking and other unsavoury methods of sucking up to someone important. Note also the American term ‘Brownie’, an award for doing something wrong. According to DOAS, ‘I got a pair of Brownies for that one’ (1942) refers to a system of disciplinary demerits on the railroads. The name was derived from the inventor of the system, presumably a Mr Brown.
(to be in a) brown study To be in idle or purposeless reverie. Originally from the sense of brown = gloomy and has been so since 1532: ‘Lack of company will soon lead a man into a brown study.’ Samuel Johnson defined the term as ‘gloomy meditation’.
brush See DAFT AS A; LIVE OVER THE.
(a) brush off Meaning ‘a rebuff’, this noun is said to derive from a habit of Pullman porters in the USA who, if they thought you were a poor tipper, gave you a quick brush over the shoulders and passed on to the next customer. However, perhaps the mere action of brushing unwanted dirt off clothing is sufficient reason for the expression. Known by 1941. ‘Later when she began to hate her job at the Evening Standard and made plans to leave, she gave Robert Lutyens the brush-off. She no longer needed him’ – Christopher Ogden, Life of the Party (1994).
brute force and ignorance What is needed to get, say, a recalcitrant machine to work again. Sometimes pronounced ‘hignorance’; sometimes abbreviated to ‘BF & I’. Known by 1930.
(the) buck stops here Harry S Truman (US President 1945–53) had a sign on his desk bearing these words, indicating that the Oval Office was where the passing of the buck had to cease. It appears to be a saying of his own invention. ‘Passing the buck’ is a poker player’s expression. It refers to a marker that can be passed on by someone who does not wish to deal. Later, Jimmy Carter restored Truman’s motto to the Oval Office. Listed in The Independent (24 December 1994) in the form ‘the buck must stop here’ as a cliché of newspaper editorials. When President Nixon published his memoirs (1978), people opposed to its sale went around wearing buttons that said ‘The book stops here’.
buds See DARLING.
bugger Bognor! What King George V said in reply to a suggestion that his favourite watering place be dubbed Bognor Regis (circa 1929). They are not his dying words, as often supposed – for example by Auberon Waugh in his Private Eye diary entry (9 August 1975) that stated: ‘Shortly before the King died, a sycophantic courtier said he was looking so much better he should soon be well enough for another visit to Bognor, to which the old brute replied “Bugger Bognor” and expired.’ The first recorded telling of this incorrect version that I have found is in a letter from R. K. Parkes to the New Statesman (3 March 1967). The correct dating and occasion is given by Kenneth Rose in his biography George V (1983) where it is linked to the King’s recuperative visit to Bognor after a serious illness in the winter of 1928–9: ‘A happier version of the legend rests on the authority of Sir Owen Morshead, the King’s librarian. As the time of the King’s departure from Bognor drew near, a deputation of leading citizens came to ask that their salubrious town should henceforth be known as Bognor Regis. They were received by Stamfordham, the King’s private secretary, who, having heard their petition, invited them to wait while he consulted the King in another room. The sovereign responded with the celebrated obscenity, which Stamfordham deftly translated for the benefit of the delegation. His Majesty, they were told, would be graciously pleased to grant their request.’
bugger’s grips The short whiskers on the cheeks of Old Salts (in the British navy) – fancifully supposed to be useful for a bugger to hold on to. By the early 20th century. Compare love handles, a possibly more heterosexual term for excess folds of fat above the hips, also presumed useful to hold on to during sexual intercourse. A noticeably popular usage in the 1990s but probably dating from the 1950s. Slanguage (1984) comments: ‘Affectionate usage, often by females describing their own bodies. “I haven’t put on weight, these are my love handles.” Synonymous is side steaks.’
Buggins’ turn (more correctly Buggins’s turn) This expression gives the reason for a job appointment having been made – when it is somebody’s turn to get the job rather than because the person is especially well qualified to do so. The name Buggins is used because it sounds suitably dull and humdrum (‘Joseph Buggins, Esq. J.P. for the borough’ appears in one of G. W. E. Russell’s Collections and Recollections, 1898. Trollope gives the name to a civil servant in Framley Parsonage, 1861. The similar sounding ‘Muggins’, self-applied to a foolish person, goes back to 1855, at least). The earliest recorded use of the phrase ‘Buggins’s turn’ is by Admiral Fisher, later First Sea Lord, in a letter of 1901. Later, in a letter of 1917 (printed in his Memories, 1919), Fisher wrote: ‘Some day the Empire will go down because it is Buggins’s turn.’ It is impossible to say whether Fisher coined the phrase, though he always spoke and wrote in a colourful fashion. But what do people with the name Buggins think of it? In February 1986, a Mr Geoffrey Buggins was reported to be threatening legal action over a cartoon that had appeared in the London Evening Standard. It showed the husband of Margaret Thatcher looking through the New Year’s Honours List and asking, ‘What did Buggins do to get an MBE?’ She
