Nigel Rees - A Word In Your Shell-Like стр 4.

(an) action man A person who is given more to action than to thought, named after a boys doll that could be dressed in various military-type costumes with appropriate accoutrements. Prior to his marriage in 1981, Charles, Prince of Wales, was noted for his enthusiastic sporting activities in many fields. Coupled with his active service in the Royal Navy, such expenditure of energy caused him to be accorded this nickname. A report of a General Medical Council disciplinary inquiry in The Independent (29 March 1990) stated: He told the hearing: Mr Bewick is an Action Man, not a philosopher. Action Mans advantage is that at the drop of a hat, he can go anywhere and do anything.

action this day Instruction phrase, for office use. ACTION THIS DAY, REPORT IN THREE DAYS and REPORT PROGRESS IN ONE WEEK were printed tags that Winston Churchill started using in February 1940 to glue on to memos at the Admiralty. Subtitled Working with Churchill, the book Action This Day (1968) is a collection of the reminiscences of those who had been closely associated with Churchill during the Second World War. She [Margaret Thatcher] had the draft of that circular on her desk that night. She said Action this day and she got it. We didnt stop to argue Hugo Young, One of Us, Chap. 6 (1989).

(an) actor laddie An actor with the booming voice and declamatory manner of the Victorian and Edwardian stage. The expression presumably derives from the habit of adding the somewhat patronizing endearment laddie when talking to junior members of their companies. The playwright Ronald Harwood singled out Frank G. Carillo as an example of the breed, from the early 1900s: [He] intoned rather than talked, in a deep, trembling voice ideally suited to melodrama and he used it with equal fortissimo both on and off the stage. Sir Donald Wolfit, himself somewhat prone to this manner, described Carillo as one of the few actors he had actually

heard use the word laddie.

actress See AS THE BISHOP.

act your age (also be your age)! Grow up, behave in a manner more befitting your years. Probably from the US and in use by the 1920s. An elaboration heard in the UK (1985) act your age, not your shoe size (normal shoe sizes in the UK are in the range 412).

Adams rib The film Adams Rib (US 1949) is about husband and wife lawyers opposing each other in court and stars Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. It is also the title of a 1923 Cecil B. de Mille film about marriage, with biblical flashbacks. The phrase alludes to Genesis 2:212, which states that God made woman from one of Adams ribs. Compare SPARE RIB.

adjust See DO NOT.

(an) admirable Crichton A resourceful servant. Also applied broadly to anyone of intellectual accomplishment. The Admirable Crichton has been the title of a novel by Harrison Ainsworth (1837) and of J. M. Barries play (1902; films UK 1918, 1957), the latter about a butler who succours his shipwrecked aristocratic employer on a desert island. The term had originally been applied to James Crichton (156085), Scottish traveller and scholar, by Sir Thomas Urquhart in The Jewel (1652).

adopt, adapt, improve Motto of the National Association of Round Tables of Great Britain and Ireland, from 1927 onwards. The Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) had said in a speech at the British Industries Fair in Birmingham (1927): The young business and professional men of this country must get together round the table, adopt methods that have proved sound in the past, adapt them to the changing needs of the times and, whenever possible, improve them. The Round Table movement is a social and charitable organization for young professional and business men under the age of forty (after which age Rotary takes over).

adrift See CAST ADRIFT.

advance Australia Motto of the Commonwealth of Australia when the states united in 1901. In the 1970s and 1980s, as republicanism grew, it acquired the force of a slogan and was used in various campaigns to promote national pride (sometimes as Lets Advance Australia). In 1984, Advance Australia Fair, slightly adapted, superseded God Save the Queen as the countrys national anthem. This song, by Peter Dodds McCormick, had first been performed in Sydney in 1878, though the alliterative slogan Advance Australia apparently existed earlier when Michael Massey Robinson wrote in the Sydney Gazette (1 February 1826): Advance Then, Australia, / Be this thy proud gala /And thy watch-word be Freedom, For Ever!

advise and consent The title of Allen Drurys novel about Washington politics Advise and Consent (1959; film US 1962) (not advice) is taken from US Senate Rule 38: The final question on every nomination shall be, Will the Senate advise and consent to this nomination? In the US Constitution (Art. II, Sect. 2), dealing with the Senates powers as a check on the Presidents appointive and treaty-making powers, the phrase includes the noun rather than the verb, Advice and consent. Originally, George Washington as President went in person to the Senate Chamber (22 August 1789) to receive advice and consent about treaty provisions with the Creek Indians. Vice-President Adams used the words, Do you advise and consent? Subsequent administrations have sent written requests.