big deal! A deflating (mostly American) exclamation. DOAS has it in ‘wide student use since circa 1940’ and ‘popularized by comedian Arnold Stang in the Henry Morgan network radio program circa 1946 and on the Milton Berle network program circa 1950’. Leo Rosten in Hooray for Yiddish! (1982) emphasizes its similarity with sarcastic, derisive Jewish phrases and notes how ‘it is uttered with emphasis on the “big”, in a dry disenchanted tone’.
(the) Big Enchilada Nickname of John Mitchell (1913–88), US Attorney General, who led President Nixon’s re-election campaign in 1972 and subsequently was sentenced to a gaol term for associated offences. An enchilada is a Mexican dish. The term was evoked (like ‘Big Cheese’) by a Nixon aide, John Ehrlichman, during a 1973 taped conversation in the White House. He sought to describe the size of the sacrificial victim who was being thrown to the wolves.
(the) Big Fellow (or Big Fella) Nickname of Michael Collins (1890–1922), the Irish politician and Sinn Fein leader. Tim Pat Coogan in his biography (1990) notes that the sobriquet indicated: ‘Swollen-headedness as much as height, just under six feet.’ Sometimes also known as the Long Fellow.
(too) big for one’s boots Meaning, ‘conceited’. In use by 1879. Perhaps originally ‘…for one’s breeches’ (US by 1835). An example: in 1948, reports of a speech by Harold Wilson, then President of the Board of Trade, wrongly suggested he had claimed that when at school, some of his classmates had gone barefoot. Ivor Bulmer-Thomas consequently remarked at the 1949 Conservative Party Conference: ‘If ever he went to school without any boots it was because he was too big for them.’ This remark is often wrongly attributed to Harold Macmillan.
bigger See IS IT.
(a) bigger splash Title of David Hockney’s 1967 painting – one of his California swimming pool series – that shows a splash as a diver enters the water but does not show his body. Accordingly, A Bigger Splash became the title of a 1973 British documentary for the cinema about Hockney’s life as an artist and as a homosexual.
(the) bigger they come, the harder they fall A proverbial phrase often attributed to Bob Fitzsimmons (1862–1917), a Britishborn boxer in the USA, referring to an opponent of larger build (James L. Jeffries), prior to a fight in San Francisco (9 June 1899). This was quoted in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle (11 August 1900) as, ‘The bigger they are, the further they have to fall.’ Also attributed to the boxer John L. Sullivan but probably of earlier proverbial origin in any case. Hence, presumably, The Harder They Fall, title of a novel by Budd Schulberg and a film (US 1956) about boxing. The Harder They Come was also the title of a film (US 1973).
(a) big girl’s blouse Phrase used about a man who is not as manly as he might be. A rather odd expression, possibly of Welsh origin, and suggesting what an effeminate football or rugby player might wear instead of a proper jersey. Could it have something to do with the wobbliness of the image conjured up? Street Talk (1986) states that it ‘describes an adult male who has a low pain threshold, a “sissy”. When trying to remove a splinter someone might say: “Hold still you big girl’s blouse. It won’t hurt”.’ Confirming its mostly North country use, the phrase has also been associated with the British comedienne Hylda Baker (1908–86) in the form ‘You big girl’s blouse’, probably in the situation comedy Nearest and Dearest (ITV 1968–73). From The Guardian (20 December 1986) – about a nativity play: ‘The house is utterly still (except where Balthazar is trying to screw the spout of his frankincense pot into Melchior’s ear, to even things up for being called a big girl’s blouse on the way in from the dressing room.)’ From The Herald (Glasgow) (20 October 1994): ‘His acid-tongued father [Prince Philip] might be reinforced in his view of him as a big girl’s blouse, but Prince Charles is actually a big boy now. His children, locked away in the posh equivalent of care, are not.’ From The Sunday Times (6 November 1994): ‘Men, quite naturally, are equally unwilling to accept paternity leave, because of the fear that this will mark them for ever as a great big girl’s blouse.’
big head (or big ‘ead)! Said of a conceited person and achieving catchphrase status when spoken by Max Bygraves in the BBC radio show Educating Archie (mid-1950s). He ran into trouble with educationists for not pronouncing the ‘h’, but he persisted and also recorded a song with the refrain ‘Why does everybody call me “Big ‘ead”?’
big-hearted Arthur, that’s me! Arthur Askey (1900–82) has good cause to be acclaimed as the father of the British radio catchphrase. He had such a profusion of them from the BBC’s Band Waggon (1938–39) onwards, that he may be said to have popularized the notion that broadcast comedians were somehow incomplete without a catchphrase. ‘There had been radio comedians before this who used catchphrases,’ he commented in 1979, ‘like Sandy Powell, but ours was the first show which really made a thing of them. I was the one who was on the air most and kept banging them in.’ Band Waggon was the first BBC comedy show specifically tailored for radio – as opposed to being made up of variety acts. The basic format was that of a magazine, but the best-remembered segment is that in which Askey shared a flat with Richard Murdoch (1907–90) on the top of Broadcasting House in London, bringing added meaning to the term ‘resident comedians’. A catchphrase that stayed with Askey for the rest of his life was spoken in the first edition of the show on 5 January 1938. ‘I have always used this expression – even when I was at school. When playing cricket, you know, if the ball was hit to the boundary and nobody would go and fetch it – I would…saying “Big-hearted Arthur, that’s me!”’ ‘Big-Hearted Arthur’ was also Askey’s bill matter.
(the) big lie From the German grosse Lüge – a distortion of the truth so brazen that it cannot fail to be accepted, a technique that was the cornerstone of Nazi propaganda. Adolf Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf (1925): ‘The great mass of the people…will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one.’ Together with Josef Goebbels, his propaganda chief, Hitler perceived that the bigger a lie was and the more frequently it was told, the greater was the likelihood of its mass acceptance.
big money See LOADSAMONEY.
(the) big one This boast, beloved – in particular – of a certain type of advertiser, almost certainly dates back to 1907 when, in the USA, Ringling Brothers Circus bought up its rival, Barnum and Bailey. The two together were billed, understandably, as ‘The Big One’. When the outfit closed in 1956, the New York Post had the headline, ‘THE BIG ONE IS NO MORE!’ The term may be applied to any product or event that an advertiser wishes to promote as important. From the BBC radio show Round the Horne (14 May 1967): ‘Rousing fanfare: “This is the big one” – “Watch out for it” – “It’s coming your way” – “It’s coming soon” – “Don’t miss it”.’ Since the 1960s at least, the phrase ‘Big One’ has also been applied to the feared and inevitable major earthquake expected in southern California, of which there have been several harbingers. From The Washington Post (2 October 1987): ‘Shaken Californians’ Thoughts Turn To The Future “Big One” –…Southern Californians spent most of their day today reliving the earthquake and almost everybody’s wild fear that this would be what is generally referred to in this state as “the Big One”…a reference to the earthquake all Californians know has been building for decades along the San Andreas Fault, and which is predicted, when it hits, to cause massive devastation along the West Coast.’ The British TV commentator David Vine caused a good deal of inappropriate laughter in about 1974 when, at athletic competitions, he would talk of competitors ‘pulling