and dollars-to-dumplings appeared in the 1880s, meaning “almost certain” and usually used in “I’ll bet you dollars-to-buttons/dumplings” or “you can bet dollars-to-buttons/dumplings.” They were replaced by 1890 with the more popular dollars-to-doughnuts (a 1904 variation, dollars-to-cobwebs, never became very common, perhaps because it didn’t alliterate).’ Now obsolete.
DOM Abbreviation of ‘Deo, Optimo, Maximo [To God, most good, most great]’ – what you find inscribed on bottles of Benedictine liqueur. Since the 16th century. Also short for Dirty Old Man. ‘Poor Shirley, she thought, Harry is going to become a prize D.O.M.’ – Will Camp, Ruling Passion, Chap. 12 (1959). This abusive phrase written out in full goes back farther: ‘Mum think’s he’s harmless…In fact she was quite umbrageous with me when I called him a dirty old man’ – Rosamond Lehmann, Invitation to the Waltz, Pt 3, Chap. 14 (1932). In the BBC TV sitcom Steptoe and Son (1962–5, 1970–74), the younger Steptoe (Harry H. Corbett) would say to his father (Wilfred Brambell), ‘You dirty old man’, at the slightest hint of any impropriety on his part.
dominion See AND DEATH.
(the) domino theory The old simile of falling over ‘like a stack of dominoes’ was first used in the context of Communist takeovers by the American political commentator Joseph Alsop. Then President Eisenhower said at a press conference in April 1954: ‘You have broader considerations that might follow what you might call the “falling domino” principle. You have a row of dominoes set up. You knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is that it will go over very quickly.’ In South-East Asia, the theory was proved true to an extent in the 1970s. When South Vietnam collapsed, Cambodia then fell to the Khmer Rouge and Laos was taken over by the Communist-led Pathet Lao. In 1989, when one Eastern European country after another renounced Communism, there was talk of ‘reverse domino theory’.
done See ALL; BOY DONE WELL.
donkey’s years As in, ‘I haven’t seen her for donkey’s years’ – i.e. for a very long time. Current by 1916. It is not very hard to see that what we have here is a distortion of the phrase ‘donkey’s ears‘ (which are, indeed, long). As such, what we have is a form of rhyming slang: donkey’s = donkey’s ears = years. (Brewer, however, at one time gave the less enjoyable explanation that ‘donkey’s years’ is an allusion to the ‘old tradition’ that one never sees a dead donkey.) This also helps to explain the alternative expression (known since the 1960s), ‘I haven’t seen her for yonks’, where ‘yonks’ may well be a distortion of ‘year’ and ‘donk(ey)s’.
(la) donna è mobile [woman is fickle] From the Duke of Mantua’s aria in Act 3 of Verdi’s opera Rigoletto (1851), also translated as: ‘Woman is wayward / As a feather in the breeze / Capricious is the word’. The libretto is by Francesco Maria Piave (1810–76).
donor fatigue See COMPASSION FATIGUE.
do not adjust your set In the early days of British television, particularly in the late 1940s and early 1950s, technical breakdowns were a common feature of the evening’s viewing. The BBC’s caption normal service will be resumed as soon as possible became a familiar sight. The wording is still sometimes used in other contexts. As standards improved, it was replaced by the (usually more briefly displayed) phrase, ‘There is a fault – do not adjust your set’. Do Not Adjust Your Set was the title of a children’s comedy series on ITV in 1968, devised in part by some of the future Monty Python team.
do not fold, spindle or mutilate Phrase used when punched computer cards began to accompany bills and statements in the 1950s, though Bartlett used to date this somewhat bossy injunction to the 1930s. By the 1960s, the words evoked a machine age that was taking over. By the 1980s, the cards were no longer necessary. A slogan of the 1960s’ student revolution (as seen at the Berkeley riots of 1964) was: ‘I am a human being – do not fold, spindle or mutilate me.’ A graffito (quoted 1974) read: ‘I am a masochist – please spindle, fold or mutilate.’ Do Not Fold Spindle or Mutilate was the title of a film (US 1971).
do not pass ‘Go’ An enduring phrase from Monopoly, the board game invented by an unemployed salesman, Charles Darrow, in 1929, the year of the Wall Street crash. It is based on fantasies of buying up real estate in Atlantic City. Players begin on the square marked ‘Go’, may possibly return to that square to ‘collect $200 salary as you pass’, or land on the ‘Go to jail’ square, or draw a ‘Chance’ card with the penalty: ‘GO TO JAIL / MOVE DIRECTLY TO JAIL / DO NOT PASS “GO” / DO NOT COLLECT $200.’ In the UK version, the sum is £200. A Sunday Mirror editorial (3 May 1981) stated: ‘The laws of contempt are the ones under which editors and other media folk can be sent straight to jail without passing Go.’ A businessman said to a woman who had paid for her husband to be beaten up: ‘If the police find out you are paying, you will go to jail, directly to jail, you will not pass “go” or collect £200’ – report of trial in The Times (30 November 1982).
don’t ask! Phrase usually inserted in parentheses to warn the reader or listener not to inquire too deeply about a piece of information that is being given – because it might be irrelevant to the main point of what is being related or may reveal a fact that is embarrassing to somebody. Noticed by the late 1990s. ‘So whose pointy-headed children did Pendennis spot arriving at the exclusive – £7,000 a year – Dragon School in Oxford the other day? Don’t ask!’ – The Observer (9 February 2003).
don’t ask the price – it’s a penny An early slogan from the great British store Marks & Spencer. The firm had its origins in a stall set up at Leeds market in 1884 by a 21-year-old Jewish refugee from Poland. Michael Marks’s slogan has become part of commercial folklore. It was written on a sign over the penny section – not all his goods were that cheap. He had simply hit upon the idea of classifying goods according to price.
don’t be filthy! Don’t use bad language or make obscene suggestions – but an expression usually applied following a double entendre or something quite innocent. Used by Arthur Askey in the BBC radio show Band Waggon (from 1938).
don’t be fright! Catchphrase of Sirdani, the British radio magician (sic) in circa 1944.
don’t be misled See READY AYE READY.
don’t be vague – ask for Haig Slogan for Haig whisky since about 1936. The origin is to some extent lost in a Scotch mist because many of the John Haig & Co. archives were destroyed during the Second World War. However, the agency thought to be responsible was C. J. Lytle Ltd. An ad survives from 1933 with the wording, ‘Don’t be vague, order Haig’; another from 1935 with ‘Why be vague? Ask for Haig’; and it seems that the enduring form arose shortly after this. It has been jocularly suggested that Haig’s premium brand Dimple (which is sold as Pinch in North America) should be promoted with the slogan, ‘Don’t be simple, ask for Dimple’.
don’t blow on it, Herbert, fan it with your hat What you say to someone who is attempting to drink very hot tea or soup – usually pronounced, ‘Don’t blow on it, ‘Erbert, fan it wiv yer ‘at.’ As so often, the origin seems to lie with Punch, in particular F. H. Townsend’s cartoon from the issue of 9 May 1906. Two young women are seated, for no apparent reason, in front of a labelled bust of Hogarth (locating the scene in Leicester Square, London, where Joseph Durham’s 1875 bust is still in place), and one says: ‘Such a nice young man took me out to dinner last night – such a well-mannered man. D’you know,
