Wordorigins.org

The Big List

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

actinium
Alabama
Alaska
Alberta
ale / beer
all your base are belong to us
allege
aluminum / aluminium
America
angel
Anglo-Saxon
antimony
apron strings, tied to
argon
Arizona
Arkansas / Kansas
arsenic
astatine
bagel
bailiwick
baker's dozen
balling the jack
balls to the wall
bandwagon, jump on the
barbecue
barium
baseball
bated breath
bats in the belfry
be
bedlam
beech
beefeater
been there, done that
beer
beeswax
belfry / bats in the belfry
Big Apple
Big Bang
bigwig
bikini
bimbo
bismuth
bit / byte
bits, two
bizarre
black box
Black Friday & Cyber Monday
blackguard
blackmail
blimp
blind pig / blind tiger
blockbuster
bloody
blue / blues
blue moon
blurb
Bob's your uncle
bogart
bogey
booby
book / beech
boondocks
boondoggle / woggle
booze
boron
brass monkey, cold enough to freeze the balls off a
brass tacks
break a leg
broad
bromine
brothel
brownie points
Brunswick / New Brunswick
buck (dollar)
Buckley's chance
bug
bull & bear markets
bullpen
bumper crop
bunk
Burma / Myanmar
busman's holiday
buy the farm
by and large
byte
cabal
cad / caddie / cadet
cadmium
Caesarean section..
calcium
California
call a spade a spade
Canada
cancer
capital / capitol
carbon / diamond / graphite
card sharp / card shark
Carolina
catch-22
caucus
cæsium, cesium
cerium
cesium
chad
chairman
charger plate
charley horse
chili
China
chlorine
chow
chrome
chromium / chrome
church key
churl
cinch / lead pipe cinch
cloud nine
cobalt
cockpit
cocktail
coin a phrase
cold turkey
cold war
colonel
Colorado
Columbia
columbium
commando
commode
condom
Connecticut
cop
copper
cotton
cotton-picking
cowabunga
cracker
crackerjack
crap
craps
cuckquean, quean
cunt
curfew
curmudgeon
cut the mustard
cut to the chase
cute
cyber-
Dago
Dakota
dark and stormy night
Davy Jones's locker
deadline
debt
Delaware
denim / jeans
devil to pay
diamond
didymium
die
digs
dirt poor
Dixie
dizzy
dog eat dog
doh / duh
dollar
dollars to doughnuts
dolly
dongle
doom
doozy
dope
dork
doughboy
doughnut
drag race
dressed to the nines
drink the Kool-Aid
dry run
duck / duck tape / duct tape
duct tape
duh
dukes
dunce
Dutch treat
dyke
dysprosium
earl
Easter
eavesdrop
eeny, meany, miney, moe
egg on
eighty-six
elephant, to see the
erbium
ethnic cleansing
eureka
europium
evolution
exception that proves the rule
face
face the music
faggot
fair to middling
fast and loose
field day
fifth column
filibuster
fire
five by five
flea market
Florida
fluorine
flying colors
flying saucer
fortnight
francium
free lunch
freelance
French fries
French kiss
fritz, on the
frog march
fuck
fudge
full monty
fuzz
G-man
G.I.
gadolinium
gallium
gargoyle
gay
geek
Generation X
Georgia
germanium
ghost / give up the ghost
gig
give up the ghost
glitch
globalization
gold
golf
gonzo
goody two-shoes
googol / Google
gossip
Gotham
grandfather clause
graphite
graveyard shift
green room
gringo
ground zero
guerrilla
guinea
gun
gung ho
gyp
hack / hackney
hacker
hafnium
hag
Halloween
Hampshire / New Hampshire
handicap
happy as a clam
harlot
hat trick
Hawaii
hawk a loogie
head over heels
heathen
heaven
helium
hell
hell in a handbasket
hell-bent for leather
hello
hermetic seal
hero
high misdemeanor
hijack
Hobson's choice
hocus-pocus
hogan's goat
holmium
homecoming
honeymoon
honky / hunky / hunyak / honyock
honyock
hooch / hootchy-kootchy
hoodwink
hooker
hooky
hooligan
Hoosier
hootchy-kootchy
hot
hot dog
hotshot
huckleberry
humble pie
hunky
hunky-dory
hunyak
husband
hustings
hydrogen
hysteria
Idaho
Illinois
in like Flynn
Indian giver
Indian summer
Indiana
indium
iodine
Iowa
iridium
iron
ivory tower
Ivy League
Jack Robinson
jackleg / jackknife
java / joe
jaywalk
jazz
jeans
Jeep
jerk / jerkwater / jerk-off / jerky
jerry-built / jury rig
Jersey / New Jersey
jinx
jody
John Bull
jones
joneses, keeping up with the
jump the shark
jury rig
kangaroo
kangaroo court
Kansas
Katy, bar the door
keep one's nose clean
keister
Kentucky
khaki
kibosh
kick the bucket
Kilroy was here
kit and caboodle
kitty-corner
Knickerbocker / knickers
knight
krypton
Ku Klux Klan
l'esprit de l'escalier / staircase wit
Labrador
lallapaloosa
lam, on the
lanthanum
larboard
lead
lead pipe cinch
leap year
leatherneck
left wing
Lent
let the cat out of the bag
life of Riley
lithium
lobby / lobbyist
lock and load
lock, stock, and barrel
lollapalooza / lallapaloosa
lollygag
long in the tooth
loose cannon
lord
lorem ipsum...
Louisiana
lukewarm
lutetium
lynch
magnesium
Maine
man / woman
manganese
Manitoba
martini
Maryland
Massachusetts
mate
mayday
mercury / quicksilver
Mexico / New Mexico
Michigan
milquetoast
mind your Ps and Qs
Minnesota
misdemeanor / high misdemeanor
Mississippi
Missouri
mojo
moll
Molotov cocktail
molybdenum
mondegreen
money laundering
monkey wrench
Montana
morphology
mortgage
muckety-muck
mulligan
Murphy's Law
Myanmar
narc / nark
Nebraska
neck of the woods
neodymium
neon
neptunium
nerd
Nevada
new / news
New Brunswick
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
New York minute
Newfoundland
nickel
nigger
nightingale
nightmare
niobium / columbium
nitrogen
Northwest Territories
Nova Scotia
Nunavut
off the wall
Ohio
OK / okay
Oklahoma
old army game
Ontario
opera ain't over until the fat lady sings, the
orange
Oregon
osmium
over a barrel
oxygen
pagan
pale, beyond the
palladium
pandemonium
paparazzi
pay through the nose
peanut / peanut gallery
peloton / platoon
Pennsylvania
phat
phoney
phosphorus
piccaninny
picnic
pig
pig in a poke, buy a
pipe dream
pitchblende
pizzazz
platinum
platoon
plugged nickel
plutonium, Pluto
poindexter
point blank
poker
politically correct / PC
polka dot
polonaise
polonia
polonium / polonia / polony / polonaise
polony
poop deck
port / larboard / starboard
posh
pot-boiler
potash
potassium / potash
pound sand
praseodymium, neodymium (and didymium)
Prince Edward Island
promethium
proof of the pudding
pros from Dover
protactinium
pull the wool over one's eyes
pumpernickel
push the envelope
pussyfoot
q.t., on the
quean
Quebec
quicksilver
quiz
rabbit test / the rabbit died
radiation
radio
radioactive
radium / radioactive / radio / radiation
radon
rain cats and dogs
rain check
rap / rap sheet
read the riot act
real McCoy, the
red herring
red tape
redhanded
redneck
reggae
rhenium
Rhode Island
rhodium
rhubarb
ring around the rosie
roger
rope-a-dope
round robin
Rube Goldberg
rubidium
rule of thumb
ruthenium
sabbatical
sabotage
salad days
Sam Hill
samarium
sandwich
Saskatchewan
sawbuck
say uncle
scab
scandium
scapegoat
scot free
scram
screw the pooch
scuttlebutt
sea change
secretary
seed
selenium
shark
shit
shock and awe
short shrift
shrink
sideburns
silicon
silver
sin
sixes and sevens, at
skedaddle
skid row
skin of one's teeth
slang
sleep tight
smart aleck
smoking gun
snowclone
soap opera
soccer
sodium
Soho
son of a gun
SOS
southpaw
spam
spic
spick and span
spitting image
spud
square meal
squaw
staircase wit
star
starboard
state of the art
station wagon
stool pigeon
strontium
sulfur
swan song
swashbuckler
sweeps
tabloid
tail wagging the dog
Taliban
tantalum
Taps
technetium
teetotal
tellurium
Tennessee
tenterhooks
terbium
terrorism
testify
Texas
thallium
that's white of you
The coldest winter...San Francisco
think outside the box
third degree, the
Third World
thorium
three sheets to the wind
threshold
throw the baby out with the bathwater
Thule
thulium, Thule
tin
tinker's damn
tip
tit for tat
titanium
toe the line
tongue in cheek
tow-headed
trailer
trench foot / trench mouth
trespass / sin / debt
triage
trick or treat
trip the light fantastic
triskaidekaphobia
trivia / trivial
troubleshooter
truck / truck farm
tucker out
tungsten, wolfram
turkey
twenty-three skidoo
Uncle Sam
under the weather
United Nations
up to snuff
upset
upsydaisy
uranium, Uranus, pitchblende
Uranus
Utah
vampire
vanadium
vaudeville
Vermont
Virginia / West Virginia
wake
Washington
weapon of mass destruction
weird
welch, welsh
West Virginia
whistleblower
whole nine yards, the
whole shebang, the
widow
widow's peak
wild goose chase
Windy City, the
Wisconsin
with a grain of salt
wog
woggle
wolfram
woman
wop
world war
Wyoming
xenon
Yankee
York / New York
ytterbium
yttrium
Yukon
zinc
zircon
zirconium / zircon