The Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is known for his colourful turn of phrase, and recently (and ungratefully, considering that the Leader of Her Majesty's Opposition had just voted in Parliament to reject a General Election, thus forcing the Prime Minister to continue in being in charge of the country*) he called the Leader of the Opposition a big girl's blouse.
This is an expression that's always puzzled me. Is it the blouse of a big girl? Or merely a blouse that's too big?
I know the expression implies cowardice, but what's that got to do with women's clothing?
Well, probably, this:
Sunday Rest: Phrase Not To Use Today: big girl's blouse. This phrase seems to come from Lancashire in North West England, and its earliest recorded use was in the TV sitcom Nearest and Dearest. The origin of the phrase is not completely clear, but it's strongly associated with sport, and the best guess seems to be the idea that a weak or over-sensitive (there's an old-fashioned idea for you) man might literally as well as metaphorically get in a flap if, as a rugby or soccer player, he wore a big girl's blouse instead of his team strip.
The word blouse comes from 1800s France, but no one knows any more than that.
So this means the phrase probably refers to neither a big blouse nor a big girl, but a big man.
*The word bonkers has been used to describe Britain's current political shenanigans.
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