where did the phrase "maddogs and englishmen" originate?
540830
I believe that this was in India, during the time of the Raj, when India was governed by the UK, the full quote is 'Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the Midday Sun'.\n\nDo to the fact that the English were not used to hot climates, and did not know how to survive in them, regularly falling foul of Maleria, until they took Metol Hydroquinine in the form of Indian Tonic Water - a horrible taste but made better by adding Gin to it, there was born the Gin & Tonic
98950
"Who chose cake?"\n\nIt's exact etymology is unclear but this much is certain: the British coined the phrase. \n\n"The first documented appearance of the term is in 1943, in an small book of British military slang, although sources claim it was used in the RAF throughout World War Two, and was originally a Yorkshire dialect term in use at least since 1914."
291942
I found this referenced to "Wise Words and Wives' Tales: The Origins, Meanings and Time-Honored Wisdom of Proverbs and Folk Sayings Olde and New" by Stuart Flexner and Doris Flexner (Avon Books, New York, 1993)......\n \n\n\nIF YOU CAN'T LICK (BEAT)THEM, JOIN THEM\nThis was first recorded by the American writer Quentin Reynolds in 'The Wounded Don't Cry' (1941).\n\nThere's an old political adage which says 'If you can't lick 'em, jine 'em.'\n\nA few years later, Holger Cahill used the alternative form, 'If you can't beat them...' in 'Look South to the Polar Star' (1947)..."
806041
Meaning\n\nA type of suede shoes. Also, in the USA, a form of corn-bread fritter.\n\nOrigin\n\nHush Puppies in the culinary sense are balls of fried seasoned cornbread. They have been popular in the southern states of the USA, often eaten with fried fish, and possibly known since the 18th century. The first reference to the term in print come quite late, but that's not entirely surprising as few people would have had any reason to write the name down. \n\nIn 'Dialect Notes', 1918: "Hushpuppy, a sort of bread prepared very quickly and without salt."\n\nBy 1947 the US magazine 'This Week' had printed what amounts to a basic recipe: "What's a hush puppy? You mean you don't know that Southern fried bread like a miniature corn pone - but glorified? It's made of the white cornmeal of the South, smooth and fine as face powder."\n\nThere are many stories about the origin of the term. None of these come complete with any supporting evidence so, unlike the early hushpuppies themselves, have to be taken with a pinch of salt. Two of the most commonly repeated stories are:\n\nIf Confederate soldiers detected Yankee soldiers approaching, they would quieten their barking dogs by throwing them the fried cornmeal balls. \n\nIn the southern USA, salamanders were called "water dogs" or "water puppies". These were eaten as part of poor people's diet - deep-fried with cornmeal. They were given the name hush puppies as eating such humble food wasn't something people wanted to discuss. \n\nHush Puppy shoes were produced by the US shoe company Wolverine World Wide from 1958 onward. The company had developed a method of tanning pigskin and were looking for an outlet for the soft pigskin suede. It is reported that the name was coined by Jim Muir, the company's Sales Manager. He noticed that a friend's dogs were quietened by giving them corn hush puppies and, knowing that aching feet were called barking dogs, thought that 'Hush Puppies' would be a good name for the shoes. The 'barking dofgs' phrase was well-known in the USA by 1958, so the story is plausible at least, although I can only report it here as hearsay. \n\nThe shoes were heavily marketed from 1958, as this example from the Oakland Tribune that year shows.\n\nIronically, the shoes themselves have crepe soles that often squeak loudly on hard flooring.
280494
time and civilisation  killed them.\n\nOnce a warrior gentle of birth,\nThen a person of civic worth,\nNow a fellow to move our mirth.\nWarrior, person, and fellow — no more:\nWe must knight our dogs to get any lower.\nBrave Knights Kennelers then shall be,\nNoble Knights of the Golden Flea,\nKnights of the Order of St. Steboy,\nKnights of St. Gorge and Sir Knights Jawy.\nGod speed the day when this knighting fad\nShall go to the dogs and the dogs go mad.
726125
Well it does come from the song Yankee Doodle Dandy but the question is where does Yankee come from. You Yanks called us Limeys and that is because our sailors used to eat limes to protect against scurvy on their long sea voyages.\nBTW the Cockney (London Dialect) for a Yank is a  "Septic" from "Septic Tank" which in true Cockney rhyming slang  form the "Tank" rhymes with Yank but the first un-rhyming part is used, Apple and Pears meanind Stairs becomes Apples, Currant Bun meaning Sun becomes Currant,Frog and Toad meaning  Road becomes Frog.\nSo 'the Septic went up the Apples and had a Lemon' translates to 'the Septic Tank went up the Apple and Pears to have a Lemon Squash' i.e. 'the Yank went up the stairs and had a wash!'. Whole conversations can be had using Cockney rhyming slang!!\nGuess it doesn't answer your question but goes to show how bizarre our language is!
120738
I believe it originated around gangsters of the 20s who wanted a word to act tough with when asking for money such as "Gimme yer dough!!" or "Frankie, don't forget the dough or Patty will be mad" It was just the slang of the time, but sort of lingered till present day
793676
Sorry you've had such rubbish answers. \n\nI'm usually quite good at this sort of thing, but I'm afraid I can't find any info on the origins of this phrase.\n\nI hope someone more knowledgeable answers you soon!
340804
in the cold winters of the 5th century a.d., the native Aztecs in what is now Peru, used dog skins as a type of moccasin that was the same texture as leather when it was frozen... soon after the Spanish inquisition, the Spaniards adopted the slang term of "dogs" as shoes and brought it to the south western states of the U.S. where it is still in use today. Going along with this, The Spanish began calling people they "looked down upon" "dog", which  later derived into the slang term. just like how the frowned upon word "niggerr" has become a slang term meaning friend.
225140
I don't know if there's much etymology of the phrase, but here's an article about it which puts forth some interesting possibilities of the origin.\n\nQuote from the site:\n\n"Some linguists and historians think the expression must have been well known during the war years, citing a story about General Eisenhower's dog. The story goes that the dog (Felix) urinated on a map and the officers joked that the enemy was "pissed off." (Leonard Mosely, Marshall, 1982)."
492451
The expression "Put up your dukes" comes from old Cockney rhyming slang: "Put up your forks. Put up your Duke of Yorks." (forks refer to fingers and hence your hands)\n\nHowever there is a line of thought that the phrase "put up your dukes" and "duke it out" refer to the name of the God of Boxing, Polydeuces
499282
U.K. origin. Means watch your pints & quarts to an ale drawer. Now it means to mind your manners.
705558
From one of the speeches in Henry VI part 2 (that's a Shakespeare play!)\n\nHere's the speech. The origin of Mum's the word comes in the third line:\n\n\n    Hume must make merry with the duchess' gold;\n    Marry, and shall. But how now, Sir John Hume!\n    Seal up your lips, and give no words but mum:\n    The business asketh silent secrecy.\n    Dame Eleanor gives gold to bring the witch:\n    Gold cannot come amiss, were she a devil.\n    Yet have I gold flies from another coast;\n    I dare not say, from the rich cardinal\n    And from the great and new-made Duke of Suffolk,\n    Yet I do find it so; for to be plain,\n    They, knowing Dame Eleanor's aspiring humour,\n    Have hired me to undermine the duchess\n    And buz these conjurations in her brain.\n    They say 'A crafty knave does need no broker;'\n    Yet am I Suffolk and the cardinal's broker.\n    Hume, if you take not heed, you shall go near\n    To call them both a pair of crafty knaves.\n    Well, so it stands; and thus, I fear, at last\n    Hume's knavery will be the duchess' wreck,\n    And her attainture will be Humphrey's fall:\n    Sort how it will, I shall have gold for all.
343729
I don't know i am Flabbergasted! Joking!\n\nThe British comedian Frankie Howerd used to say in mock astonishment: “I’m flabbergasted—never has my flabber been so gasted!”. That’s about as good an explanation for the origin of this word as you’re likely to get. It turns up first in print in 1772, in an article on new words in the Annual Register. The writer couples two fashionable terms: “Now we are flabbergasted and bored from morning to night”. (Bored—being wearied by something tedious—had appeared only a few years earlier.) Presumably some unsung genius had put together flabber and aghast to make one word.\n\nThe source of the first part is obscure. It might be linked to flabby, suggesting that somebody is so astonished that they shake like a jelly. It can’t be connected with flapper, in the sense of a person who fusses or panics, as some have suggested, as that sense only emerged at the end of the nineteenth century. But flabbergasted could have been an existing dialect word, as one early nineteenth-century writer claimed to have found it in Suffolk dialect and another—in the form flabrigast— in Perthshire. Further than this, nobody can go with any certainty.
184232
"HAM. Actors prefer to think that the word derives from the old theatrical use of ham fat to remove blackface makeup - actors were thus called hamfatters, or hams. Many scholars lean to this theory, but 'ham' in the sense of an amateur actor or a 10th rate actor who outrageously overplays his scenes has enough folk etymologies to make a one-act play. Since none really seems capable of absolute proof, I'll simply list three: 1) Ham derives from the Cockney slang 'hamateur,' for 'amateur actor.' (Unlikely, as the term 'ham' in this sense is American from about 1880.) 2) The word structure of 'amateur' itself suggested 'ham.' (A good possibility, but why did it wait so long to suggest itself?) 3) It comes from the role of 'Hamlet,' which actors frequently misperformed. (Another good possibility, but, if so, 'ham' should have been with us since Shakespeare's time.) 'Ham' for one of the rear quarters of a hog, or its meat, derives from Old English 'hamm' for the bend of the knee."
785422
It's probably from Aesop's Fables. That's where most quotes like that come from.
279355
It comes from Cockney Rhyming slang, originating in the east end of London. (Cockneys are traditional those born within earshot of the bells of Bow Church)\n\nBristols = Bristol Cities = Titties.\n\nSome othe examples are\nButhers = Buthers Hook = Look\nBoat Race = Face\n\nIn use it would be something like "Jesus have a butchers at her bristols... shame about the boat race."\n\nhttp://www.lingo.arollo.com/cockney.html\n\nMany of the cockney rhyming slang terms have become every day terms around the UK now.