wrangle about procedure which lasted from 3.45 until 5.30…in war time! it was ludicrous in the extreme.’
(is) alive and well and living in—This format phrase probably began in a perfectly natural way – ‘What’s happened to old so-and-so?’ ‘Oh, he’s still alive and well and living in Godalming’ etc. In the preface to His Last Bow (1917), Conan Doyle wrote: ‘The Friends of Mr Sherlock Holmes will be glad to learn that he is still alive and well…’ The extended form was given a tremendous fillip when the Belgian-born songwriter and singer Jacques Brel (1929–78) became the subject of an off-Broadway musical show entitled Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris (1968–72). Quite why M. Brel should have merited this WHERE ARE THEY NOW? treatment is not too apparent, but the format caught on. The Listener (3 October 1968), quoting the Daily Mail, stated: ‘The Goon Show is not dead. It is alive and well, living in Yorkshire and operating under the name of BBC Radio Leeds.’ The format had earlier probably been used in religious sloganeering, possibly prompted by Time Magazine’s famous cover (circa 1966), ‘IS GOD DEAD?’ The New Statesman (26 August 1966) quoted a graffito, ‘God is alive and living in Argentina’. This suggests that the formula might have been used originally in connection with Nazi war criminals who had escaped prosecution and lived unharmed in South America. Other graffiti have included: ‘God is not Dead – but Alive and Well and working on a Much Less Ambitious Project’ – quoted in The Guardian (27 November 1975); ‘Jesus Christ is alive and well and signing copies of the Bible at Foyles’ (quoted in 1980). In a letter to The Independent Magazine (13 March 1993), M. H. I. Wright wrote: ‘When I was a medical student and young house physician 50 years ago, we had to write very detailed case-sheets on every patient admitted. Under the heading “Family History”, we detailed each member of his family – for example, “Father, died of heart diseases in 1935; Mother, alive and well and living in London.” One pedantic consultant insisted we drop the word “alive” because, as he said, how could the relative be “dead and well”?’ On the other hand, a US film in 1975 was burdened with the title Sheila Devine Is Dead and Living in New York. ‘The last English eccentric is alive and well and living comfortably in Oakland’ – Time Magazine (5 September 1977); ‘The golden age detective story is alive and well’ – review in The Times of Ruth Rendell’s Put On By Cunning (1981); ‘Socialism is alive and well and living in Moscow’ –headline in The Independent (25 June 1990).
all aboard the Skylark See ANY MORE FOR THE SKYLARK.
all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others A fictional slogan from George Orwell’s Animal Farm (1945), his commentary on the totalitarian excesses of Communism. It had been anticipated: Hesketh Pearson recalled in his biography of the actor/manager Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree (1956) that Tree wished to insert one of his own epigrams in a play by Stephen Phillips called Nero, produced in 1906. It was: ‘All men are equal – except myself.’ In Noël Coward’s This Year of Grace (1928), there is this exchange – Pellet: ‘Men are all alike.’ Wendle: ‘Only some more than others.’ The saying alludes, of course, to Thomas Jefferson’s ‘All men are created equal and independent’, from the Preamble to the American Declaration of Independence (1776). It has, perhaps, the makings of a format phrase in that it is more likely to be used to refer to humans than to animals. Only the second half of the phrase need actually be spoken, the first half being understood: ‘You-Know-Who [Mrs Thatcher] is against the idea [televising parliament]. There aren’t card votes at Westminster, but some votes are more equal than others’ – The Guardian (15 February 1989).
all balls and bang me arse! Sheer nonsense. An intensifier of the basic all balls! British use, probably since the 1910s.
(I’m) all behind like the cow’s tail What people say when they are behind with their tasks. The expression ‘all behind like a cow’s tail’ has also been used to describe a person who is always last or is of a daydreaming disposition. ‘C. H. Rolph’ wrote in London Particulars (1980): ‘Grandma Hewitt [his grandmother] was a walking repository, rather than a dictionary, of clichés and catchphrases; and I have often wished she could have been known to Mr Eric Partridge during the compilation of his delectable dictionaries. Both she and I…could pre-date many of [his] attributions. Here are four examples…all of which were common currency in my Edwardian childhood: “Just what the doctor ordered”, “Are you kidding?”, “Cheats never prosper”, and “All behind like a cow’s tail”.’ There is also, of course, the expression ‘All behind like Barney’s bull’.
all bitter and twisted Said about someone who is psychologically mixed-up and shows it. Sometimes made light of in the form ‘all twitter and bisted’. Since the 1940s, at least.
all contributions gratefully received As with please give generously/all you can, this is a standard phrase from charitable appeals for money. But it is also used jokingly when accepting gifts of almost anything – another helping of food, even a sexual favour. Probably since the first half of the 20th century.
—, all day! A response to the question ‘What day is it?’ or ‘What’s the date?’ For example, ‘Tuesday/the 13th…all day!’ In use since the late 19th century.
(it’s) all done and dusted Meaning, ‘that task has been completed’. Heard in a Yorkshire hotel in 1996, but much older.
(it’s) all done with mirrors Used as a way of describing how anything has been accomplished when the method is not obvious. Originally, a way of explaining how conjuring tricks and stage illusions were performed when some, indeed, were done using mirrors – but without going into detail. Admiration, but also a suspicion of trickery, is implicit in the phrase. Noël Coward uses it in Private Lives (1930); They Do It With Mirrors is the title of an Agatha Christie thriller (1952). Compare SMOKE AND MIRRORS.
all dressed up and nowhere to go A phrase used to describe forlorn indecision comes (slightly altered) from a song popularized by the American comedian Raymond Hitchcock in The Beauty Shop (New York 1914) and Mr Manhattan (London 1915): ‘When you’re all dressed up and no place to go, / Life seems dreary, weary and slow.’ The words gained further emphasis when they were used by William Allen White to describe the Progressive Party following Theodore Roosevelt’s decision to retire from presidential competition in 1916. He said it was: ‘All dressed up with nowhere to go.’ The OED2 has the phrase starting life in a song by ‘G. Whiting’ (1912), ‘When You’re All Dressed Up and Have No Place to Go’. But Lowe’s Directory of Popular Music ascribes the song to Silvio Hein and Benjamin Burt.
all dressed up like a Christmas tree Gaudily attired – not a compliment. Since the late 19th century.
all dressed up like a pox-doctor’s clerk Flashily attired – not a compliment. Since the late 19th century. Presumably the implication is that a pox-doctor’s clerk would have plenty of money and that he would not spend it on tasteful clothing.
allegedly A single word slipped into libellous or slanderous statements to defuse them on the BBC TV topical quiz, Have I Got News For You (1990– ). Principally employed by the original host, Angus Deayton. The approach had much earlier been used by David Frost on BBC TV, That Was The Week That Was (1962–4).
alley See I WOULDN’T LIKE TO MEET.
all for one and one for all [tous pour un, un pour tous] The motto of the Three Musketeers in the novel Les Trois Mousquetaires (1844–5) by Alexandre Dumas. It had appeared earlier in Shakespeare’s Lucrece, lines
