A Word In Your Shell-Like - Nigel Rees

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up the Houses of Parliament). ‘A desperate disease requires a dangerous remedy’ (the version according to the DNB) was apparently said by him to James I, one of his intended victims. The king asked if he did not regret his proposed attack on the Royal Family. Fawkes replied that one of his objects was to blow the Royal Family back to Scotland. He was subsequently tried and put to death. What he said, however, appears to have been a version of an established proverbial saying. In the form: ‘Strong disease requireth a strong medicine’, ODP traces it to 1539. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, IV.i.68 (1594), there is: ‘I do spy a kind of hope, / Which craves as desperate an execution / As that which we would prevent.’ Shakespeare also alludes to the saying on two other occasions.

      desperation, pacification, expectation, acclamation, realization – ‘it’s Fry’s’ In the UK, advertisements for Fry’s chocolate for many years after the First World War featured the faces of five boys anticipating a bite and coupled them with these descriptive words.

      destiny See DATE WITH.

      Deutschland über Alles [Germany before/beyond everything] National slogan in Germany by 1900. ‘Deutschland, Deutschland über Alles’ was originally the title of a poem (1841) by August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben (1798–1874). Sung to Haydn’s tune for the Austrian national anthem, the poem became the German national anthem between 1922 and 1945. It was reinstated in 1952 as the national anthem of the German Federal Republic after an attempt to introduce another anthem had failed. Of the original three stanzas, only the third was retained ‘Einig-keit und Recht und Freiheit…’ – according to G. Taddey, Lexikon der deutschen Geschichte. Chiefly, the über Alles disappeared.

      devices and desires Phrase from the General Confession in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer: ‘We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts.’ Devices and Desires is the title of a crime novel (1989) by P. D. James.

      devil See AS BLACK AS; BAKER’S DOZEN; BETWIXT THE.

      (the) devil can cite scripture for his own purposes Meaning ‘an ill-disposed person may turn even good things to his own advantage’, and in this precise form this is an allusion to Antonio the Merchant in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, I.iii.93 (1596) who says it because Shylock has just been doing so.

      (the) devil is beating his wife See IT’S A MONKEY’S.

      (the) devil is in the detail See GOD IS IN.

      (the) Devil made me do it! The American comedian Flip Wilson became famous for saying this, wide-eyed, about any supposed misdemeanour, when host of a TV comedy and variety hour (1970–4).

      (a/the) devil’s advocate Originally, a person who advanced arguments, as though on the part of the Devil, against the canonization of a particular saint. In Latin, this role was known as advocatus diaboli. Now it is used in a very general way about someone who outlines the opposite (and probably unpopular) point of view when something is being discussed. It was being used in this way by 1760. ‘The father made it a point of honour to defend the Enquirer, the son played devil’s advocate’ – J. Bonar, Malthus, I.i. (1885).

      (there’ll be the) devil to pay There will be a terrible penalty to pay for pursuing this course of action. Presumably referring to the pacts that people are said to have made with the Devil which always end with the Devil exacting his side of the bargain. It has also been suggested that it has to do with ‘paying’ or ‘caulking the devil’, a seam near a ship’s keel – hence the longer form, ‘The devil to pay and no pitch hot’. ‘And then there will be the devil and all to pay’ – Jonathan Swift, Journal to Stella (letter of 28 September 1711). The Devil to Pay is the title of a ballad opera (1731) by Charles Coffey.

      diametrically opposed (or opposite or antagonistic) Completely opposed and with no overlapping of views. Kn own by 1645. ‘A sense of determinism that is diametrically opposed to the ruler-class “law-and-order and individualism”’ – Black World (December 1973); ‘Confusion surrounding the US action in Haiti has not destroyed optimism…but the existence of two diametrically opposed political camps did not dampen the euphoria in Port-au-Prince last week’ – Financial Times (24 September 1994).

      (a) diamond is forever Originally an advertising slogan, this phrase now has an almost proverbial feel to it. In 1939, the South African-based De Beers Consolidated Mines launched a campaign to promote further the tradition of diamond engagement rings. The N. W. Ayer agency of Chicago (copywriter B. J. Kidd) came up with this phrase. It passed easily into the language. Ian Fleming gave a variation of the phrase as the title of his 1956 James Bond novel, Diamonds are Forever. Technically speaking, however, they are not. It takes a very high temperature, but, being of pure carbon, diamonds will burn. Anita Loos in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1925) had already enshrined something like the idea in: ‘Kissing your hand may make you feel very, very good but a diamond and safire bracelet lasts for ever’ (diamonds are a girl’s best friend comes not from the Anita Loos novel but from the Jule Styne/Leo Robin song with this title in the 1949 stage musical and 1953 film based on the book).

      Dick See AS QUEER AS.

      Dickie’s meadow See END UP.

      diddy See HOW TICKLED.

      did I ever tell you about the time I was in Sidi Barrani? Catchphrase from the BBC radio show Much Binding in the Marsh (1947–53). The programme starred the urbane Kenneth Horne and Richard Murdoch, and this phrase was used by way of introduction to a boring anecdote, perhaps as a way of changing the subject.

      didn’t he do well? From the BBC TV show The Generation Game when presented (1971–8) by Bruce Forsyth (b. 1928) who soon had the nation parroting this and other catchphrases. ‘Didn’t he do well?’ first arose when a contestant recalled almost all the items that had passed before him on a conveyor belt (in a version of ‘Kim’s Game’). However, it is also said to have originated in about 1973 with what a studio attendant used to shout down from the lighting grid during rehearsals. Thirty years later, Forsyth was introducing yet another game show on BBC TV, with the title Didn’t They Do Well? Good game…good game! was encouragement to contestants. Nice to see you, to see you…/ Nice! was the opening exchange of greetings with the studio audience (they supplied the rejoinder). Forsyth would also say Anthea, give us a twirl – an invitation to the hostess, Anthea Redfern (to whom he was briefly married), to show off her skirt of the week.

      did she fall or was she pushed? The original form of this inquiry is said to date from the 1890s when it had to do with loss of virginity. Then it was supposedly used in newspaper reports (circa 1908) of a woman’s death on cliffs near Beachy Head. Thorne Smith alluded to the phrase in the title of a novel Did She Fall? (1936). In You Only Live Twice, Chap. 2 (1964), Ian Fleming had: ‘The coroner gave an open verdict of the “Fell Or Was Pushed” variety.’ The line ‘Was she pushed or did she jump?’ occurred in the song ‘Well! Well! Well! (My Cat Fell Down the Well)’ by Shand/Moll/Robertson (1970s). Now applied to both sexes, the formula usually inquires whether they departed from a job of their own volition or whether they were eased out by others. (Hence, the 1970s graffito, ‘Humpty Dumpty was pushed…by the CIA’.)

      did the earth move for you? Now only jokingly addressed to one’s partner after sexual intercourse, this appears to have originated as ‘Did thee feel the earth move?’ in Ernest Hemingway’s novel For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940). It is not uttered in the 1943 film version, however. Headline from The Sport (22 February 1989): ‘Sport Sexclusive On A Bonk That Will Make The Earth Move’.

      did you spot this week’s deliberate mistake? As a way of covering up a mistake that was not deliberate, this expression arose

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