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unusual facts about Phrase



Alastair Morton

Morton famously coined the phrase that the aftermath of the Hatfield rail crash constituted a 'collective nervous breakdown' on the part of the British railway industry.

Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon

The phrase "Grand Prix Priest" refers to Horan's previous protest, in which he ran onto the track at the Silverstone Circuit during the Formula One 2003 British Grand Prix, intentionally running directly into the path of oncoming cars.

Bilabial fricative

George Carlin incorrectly used the phrase bilabial fricative to refer to the sound of blowing a raspberry, which is correctly called a linguolabial trill (except as performed by chimpanzees).

Jack Black also incorrectly used the phrase bilabial fricative in the special features of the Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny DVD.

Bully Beef and Chips

The name "Bully Beef and Chips" comes from a quickly-prepared meal — corned beef and chips — with "Bully beef" being a phrase used for "corned beef".

CIA activities in Bolivia

A telegraphic code was arranged between La Paz and Higueras with the numbers 500 representing Guevara, 600 meaning the phrase "keep alive" and 700 representing "execute".

Contenance angloise

The phrase 'Contenance Angloise' was coined by Martin le Franc in a poem dedicated to Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy (1396–1467) in 1441-2 to describe the distinctive musical style of the era.

Daniel Mageean

In 1939 he coined the much-quoted phrase: A Protestant Parliament for a Protestant People, attributing it to his opponent the prime minister Lord Craigavon, but it was a slight misquotation.

Dauphin Island, Alabama

The phrase, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead," was spoken by U. S. Admiral David Farragut just a few hundred yards from Dauphin Island's shore.

Eddie Aikau

Other variations of the phrase include "Eddie would throw" (in support of the University of Hawaii's passing attack by Colt Brennan and Timmy Chang under head coach June Jones), "Eddie wouldn't crow" (in opposition to boastful and egotistical surfers), and "Eddie would hoe" (in support of Native Hawaiian agricultural outreach programs).

Fiestas Patrias

Fiestas Patrias is a Spanish phrase meaning "Patriotic Holidays" or "National Holidays".

Flip Wilson

The phrase "What you see is what you get" was often used by Wilson's Geraldine character and inspired researchers at PARC and elsewhere to create the acronym WYSIWYG.

Gentlemen, history returns

The phrase: "the Kushi can already go, Since the Kushi did the work." (Kushi is the Hebrew word for an black African man) originate from a qate by Friedrich Schiller`s paly "Fiesco".

Gloria Foy

The phrase was uttered at a Legion banquet which convened at the Drake Hotel in Chicago, Illinois, in October 1923.

Grampa Simpson

He says he was "the first to discover his terrible secret" after Kennedy mutters to himself, "Ich bin ein Berliner"; a phrase, in reality, Kennedy did not say until 20 years later.

Harry Tate

The phrase "Harry Tate" entered the 20th century English (British) language as slang, initially as a nickname for the Royal Aircraft Factory R.E.8 biplane.

HOTB

Home of the Brave, a phrase from The Star-Spangled Banner and the name of several films

Icelandic grammar

The phrase Helga Bjarni drap (Bjarni killed Helgi) might well occur in, say, a ríma.

Integrated customer management

The phrase “integrated customer management” was coined by Amdocs in 2004.

Jedem das Seine

Several modern advertising campaigns in the German language, including ads for Nokia, REWE grocery stores, Burger King, and Merkur Bank have been marred by controversy after using the phrase Jedem das Seine or Jedem den Seinen.

Jhoon Goo Rhee

Rhee is well known in the Washington, D.C. area for a television commercial that has a jingle by Nils Lofgren and features the catch phrase, "Nobody bothers me," followed by "Nobody bothers me, either."

Joe Dean

He coined the phrase "String Music" and is also known for other phrases such as, "Stufferino" and "Lexington, K-Y." During his run, he worked with NBC, TBS, ESPN, TVS and Jefferson Pilot.

Joseph Horowitz

He is also credited (as by Alex Ross in The New Yorker) with coining the phrase “post-classical music” to describe an emerging 21st century musical landscape merging classical music with popular and non-Western genres.

Keeping up with the Joneses

The phrase is also associated with another of Edith Wharton's aunts, Mary Mason Jones, who built a large mansion at Fifth Avenue and 57th Street, then undeveloped.

Kenning

For example, Old Norse poets might replace sverð, the regular word for “sword”, with a more abstract compound such as “wound-hoe” (Egill Skallagrímsson: Höfuðlausn 8), or a genitive phrase such as randa íss “ice of shields” (Einarr Skúlason: ‘Øxarflokkr’ 9).

Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen

The intended answer had been "Out of Many, One" which is a translation of the Latin phrase E pluribus unum, which is not actually the current United States motto.

Loud and Clear

Also see Five by five for the phrase "loud and clear" in communications.

Malandragem

Those who practice malandragem (o malandro) act in the manner of the popular Brazilian adage, immortalized in a catch phrase of former Brazilian soccer player Gérson de Oliveira Nunes in a cigarette TV commercial (hence the name it was given: Lei do Gérson, or Gérson's law): “I like to get an advantage in everything.”

Malesina

Euripides knew well how rages the Euboean in front of Kantili, when he wrote in the The Trojan Women the phrase "πλήσον δε νεκρών κοίλον Ευβοίας μυχόν".

Moog Droog

"Moog Droog" is an ironic anglicised spelling of the Welsh phrase mwg drwg ("bad smoke"), slang for marijuana, making a pun on the Moog synthesizer (and/or its inventor) and the slang word "droog" (based on the Russian for "friend") from A Clockwork Orange.

Noblesse oblige

Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts uses the phrase disparagingly in his majority opinion concerning the government's assertion that it will selectively prosecute animal cruelty videos based on their own interpretation of The First Amendment in United States v. Stevens.

Oxygène

The motif of the track Oxygène IV is a variation on a phrase from Popcorn by Gershon Kingsley, which Jarre himself had previously covered under the pseudonyms of The Popcorn Orchestra and Jamie Jefferson.

Pippa Passes, Kentucky

A donation from the Browning Society led to the post office's being named after Robert Browning's Pippa Passes, a verse drama which coined the phrase "God's in His heaven, all's right with the world".

Plaza Frontenac

Chingy's song "Right Thurr" contains the phrase, "we be shoppin at Frontenac," which refers to Plaza Frontenac.

Radar Rat Race

The gameplay is accompanied by a frenetic, rhythmically altered version of a phrase from Three Blind Mice, which cycles endlessly.

Randy Scouse Git

The phrase "Randy Scouse Git" came from the 1960s British BBC-TV sit-com Till Death Us Do Part, in which the loudmouthed main character Alf Garnett, played by Cockney actor Warren Mitchell, regularly insulted his Liverpudlian ("Scouse") son-in-law, played by Tony Booth.

Ron Sweed

The character of Froggy, together with his own catch phrase "Hiya Kids! Hiya! Hiya! Hiya!" and the associated command "Pluck your magic twanger, Froggy" (his signal to appear from a puff of smoke together with a twanging sound effect) are actually remnants from a much earlier children's television show Andy's Gang where an identical rubber frog toy made appearances as Froggy the Gremlin.

Rosemonde Gérard

The phrase became celebrated as an expression of ever-growing love when, in 1907 (17 years after its publication), a Lyons jeweler, Alphonse Augis, had the idea of making a medallion with the core portion of the verse engraved on it.

Royal College

Although many institutions are formally Royal Colleges, such as the three royal public schools of Westminster, Winchester and Eton, the phrase "The Royal Colleges" is commonly applied to the medical institutions, such as the Royal College of Surgeons and the Royal College of Physicians, and the Royal College of Nursing and similar institutions in Australia, Canada, and elsewhere.

Satiation

Semantic satiation, where repetition of a word or phrase causes it to temporarily lose meaning

Toshio Tamogami

On 14 July 2004, when questioned further about this supposed 'unconstitutionality' of the Air Self-Defense Force, he said his opinion should not distress its members since (quoting the catch phrase of Yoshio Kojima, a popular comedian) "what does that matter?"

Tsuneo Kusunoki

In 1973, roommates Kiyoshi Aki and Tsuneo Kusunoki founded the company AMVIC, an acronym of the phrase, "for AMbition and VICtory."

Vae victis

The first cutscene in the game includes a slight mistranslation of the term: "Suffering to the conquered." This phrase was reused in a later game, Legacy of Kain: Defiance, again spoken by Kain when killing a regular enemy with the Soul Reaver weapon and spoken in a more menacing, sinister tone than as a battle cry, and once by Raziel at the end of his battle with Kain, this time with the proper translation of "woe to the conquered."

Wasteland Speech

The phrase "vast wasteland" was suggested to Minow by his friend, reporter and freelance writer John Bartlow Martin.

We're a Winner

The phrase "We're a Winner" was later used as the motto of Mayfield's record label Curtom Records.

WENZ

In 1975, Beasley Broadcast Group purchased the station from Multicom for $550,000, and changed the call letters to WDMT ("Dyno-mite", which happened to be a well known catch phrase on the popular sitcom Good Times).

WSBG

That phrase was "I'm A Nappy Headed Ho" (in reference to the remarks made by Don Imus on his nationally syndicated radio show).

Yitzkhok Yoel Linetzky

Sol Liptzin characterized him as "a master of the picturesque vitriolic phrase." Liptzin, 1972, 46


see also