Word: rhubarb
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Your comments regarding Royal Air Force lingo (TIME, March 22) were interesting, but could have been much more so. . . . Some of our idioms and phrasings . . . that you have chosen are not as universally used as your article would indicate. For instance, whilst "on a rhubarb" is used somewhat, the more universal expression is "on a piece of cake" or "on a piece of duff." Then again, you attempt to give the degrees of fedupness in terms of "browned off," "cheesed off" and "brassed off," but actually there are no degrees of fedupness, for when...
Even the U.S. War Department took cognizance of British flyers' slang, solemnly announcing that "rhubarb" means "a target of opportunity." When a fighter pilot flies low over France, strafing whatever he finds - trains, troops, airdromes -he is "on a rhubarb...
...banners peeked around corners again, lines re-formed and marched forward. The sound of rifle fire or sudden panic would send the demonstrators racing away. When police charged or fired into the crowds, angry roars burst with the hysterical fervor of a high-school cheering section. It sounded like: "Rhubarb! Rhubarb! Rhubarb!" Soon the crowd began chanting "Inqilab Zindabad!" (Revolution Forever...
...Rhubarb is the only "fruit" available in large quantities. About once every three months a ship arrives with a few hundred crates of oranges, but these go straight to the nurseries. Britons flavor their smoked salmon with weak, artificial lemon extract...
...field, or birds of the air, whose flesh is known to be poisonous." Although there are a number of poisonous water animals, almost all reported cases of fish poisoning are due to bacteria. Only poisonous vegetables commonly found in the U.S.: 1) some 80 varieties of mushrooms; 2) some rhubarb leaves...