Complete Naff Guide (1983). It is used precisely in this way as a headline in Punch (17 June 1970). Partridge/Catch Phrases offers about 1955 as a possible starting date. There is perhaps in it an echo of the perpetually fraught White Rabbit in Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland. Although he doesn’t utter this actual phrase, he does mutter: ‘Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it’s getting.’
deck See ALL HANDS.
decline and fall The title of the novel (1928) by Evelyn Waugh was ludicrously extended to Decline and Fall…of a Birdwatcher! when filmed (UK 1968). As with all such titles, the origin is The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1766–88) by Edward Gibbon. Compare the numerous variations on the rise and fall of—theme: The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (film US 1960); The Rise and Fall of the Man of Letters – a book (1969) by John Gross; The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin –BBC TV comedy series (1976–80); The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer (film UK 1970).
decus et tutamen This is the inscription to be found on the rim of the British one pound (£1) coin which replaced the banknote of that denomination in 1983. The same words, suggested by John Evelyn the diarist, had appeared on the rim of a Charles II crown of 1662/3 (its purpose then was as a safeguard against clipping). Translated as ‘an ornament and a safeguard’ – referring to the inscription rather than the coin – the words come from Virgil’s Aeneid (Bk 5) ‘Decus et tutamen in armis’. In its full form, this is the motto of the Feltmakers’ Company (incorporated 1604).
deed See BLOODY DEED.
—deeply regret(s) any embarrassment (or inconvenience) caused A cliché of apology. The standard form is something like: ‘—apologizes for the late running of this train and for any inconvenience that may have been caused’ (never mind the pain of having to listen to the apology being trotted routinely out). Incidentally, when giving apologies it is important never to be explicit as to the cause. If trains arrive late it is ‘because of late departure’ (but no apology for that); at airports, planes are late taking off ‘because of the late arrival of the incoming plane’. Or, in other words, things happen – or, rather, don’t happen, ‘for operational reasons’. Lieutenant Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka, leader of a coup in Fiji (May 1987), was quoted as saying, ‘We apologize for any inconvenience caused.’
Deep Throat This has come to mean ‘a person within an organization who supplies information anonymously about wrongdoing by his colleagues’. It was originally the nickname given to the source within the Nixon White House who fed Washington Post journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward with information that helped in their Watergate investigations (1972–4). It has been alleged that ‘Deep Throat’ never existed but was a cover for unjustified suppositions. The journalists have declined to reveal his identity before he dies. The nickname was derived from Deep Throat (US 1972), a notorious porno movie concerning a woman, played by Linda Lovelace, whose clitoris is located in the back of her throat.
(a/the) defining moment (or defining—) Meaning, ‘a time when the nature or purpose of something is made abundantly clear; a moment that encapsulates what something is all about or shapes our perception of it’. Used especially in British politics, though probably of American origin. According to William Safire in The New York Times Magazine (10 May 1998), the first person to use ‘defining moment’ in print was Howell Raines of the same paper in 1983. Identified as a current cliché in The Times (17 March 1995). ‘The political advisers of Vice-President George Bush claim that his confrontation on Monday with Mr Dan Rather, the CBS Television news anchorman, was a “defining moment” which has galvanized his campaign for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination’ – Financial Times (28 January 1988); ‘Mary Lamb, in a fit of insanity, attacked and killed her mother. It was the defining crisis of Charles Lamb’s early life, which shaped his whole future’ – Richard Holmes, Coleridge: Early Visions, Chap. 6 (1989). In fact, any use of the word ‘defining’ now borders on the cliché: ‘Today we bear witness to an extraordinary act in one of history’s defining dramas, a drama that began in a time of our ancestors when the word went forth from a sliver of land between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea’ – President Clinton, speech at signing of Middle East peace accord (13 September 1993); ‘Bosnian Serb television yesterday showed dramatic footage, likely to be remembered among the defining images of the war, of UN military observers chained to poles beside ammunition dumps and key bridges’ – The Independent (27 May 1995); ‘But Marlowe’s Edward II, the defining role in McKellen’s career 26 years ago, makes spiritual and technical demands beyond this performer’s capacity’ – The Observer (28 May 1995).
de gustibus non [est] disputandum [there is no accounting for/arguing about tastes] This is a proverb and not a quotation or classical Latin. One source describes it as a ‘medieval scholastic joke’. Sometimes it is given as de gustibus et coloribus [about colours (or perhaps) beauty] non est disputandum.
Delenda est Carthago [Carthage must be destroyed] Cato the Elder (or ‘the Censor’), the Roman politician and orator (234–149 BC), punctuated or ended his speeches to the Roman Senate with this slogan for eight years around 157 BC, realizing the threat that the other state posed. It worked – Carthage was destroyed (in 146 BC) and Rome reigned supreme, though Cato had not lived to see the effect of his challenge. He did have the decency to precede the slogan with the words ‘ceterum censeo [in my opinion]’.
deliberate See THIS WEEK’S.
delightful weather we’re having for the time of year Genteel conversational gambit, possibly from the 19th century. In parody, often used as a way of changing the subject from something embarrassing. An example occurs in J. B. Priestley, When We Are Married, Act 1 (1938).
de mortuis nil nisi bonum [of the dead, speak kindly or not at all] Sometimes ascribed to Solon (circa 600 BC), this version of ‘speak not evil of the dead’ was also a saying of Chilo(n) of Sparta (one of the Seven Sages (6th century BC). Later, Sextus Propertius (who died in AD 2) wrote: ‘Absenti nemo non nocuisse velit [let no one be willing to speak ill of the absent].’ Sometimes simply referred to in the form ‘de mortuis…’, it is a proverb that appears in some form in most European languages.
den See BEARD THE LION.
Dennis the Menace This name has been applied to two separate comic book characters, one British and one American, but both have given a phrase to describe any badly behaved boy (and, by transference, person). The British Dennis was created by David Law in the Beano in 1951 and the American one by Hank Ketcham in the same year. What a coincidence. ‘Dennis the Menace Comes in From the Cold. Can Newt Gingrich save the GOP House Minority from irrelevance?’ – headline in US News & World Report (27 March 1989).
de profundis The title of Oscar Wilde’s letter of self-justification following his imprisonment (published 1905) comes from the Latin words for ‘out of the depths’ (Psalm 130).
(the) desert and the sown Phrase contrasting the desert and ground that has been seeded. Date of origin not known. ‘With me along some Strip of Herbage strown / That just divides the desert from the sown’ – Edward Fitzgerald, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, St. 10 (1859); ‘The difference between Hejaz and Syria was the difference between the desert and the sown’ – T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, V.lviii (1935).
Desert Storm ‘Operation Desert Storm’ was the code name bestowed by its American leadership
