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Site title: Word histories – “ad fontes!”

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Britain, 1747: dew of the kind that settles on mountains—Scotland, 1816: whisky or other spirit, especially when home-made or illicit (originally in reference to whisky distilled in the Highlands, i.e., in the mountainous region of Scotland)

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USA, 1977—petroleum, and any liquid derived from petroleum used in a vehicle powered by an internal-combustion engine—perhaps from popular association of ‘dinosaur’ with ‘fossil fuel’

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UK, 1817—a blank book in which pictures, newspaper cuttings, and the like are pasted for preservation—hence also (UK, 1821) used as the title of a printed book of miscellaneous contents

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a time at which it is considered acceptable or sociable to start drinking beer—used of various times of the day—USA, 1910

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British, dialectal, 1828: the break of day, i.e., the dawn chorus, with humorous allusion to a small passerine breaking wind—later also: an insignificant person or thing

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