Every phrase has a story.

B. A fermented fish sauce from southern China The word most likely comes from Hokkien Chinese kê-tsiap, a pungent fermented fish brine. British traders brought the idea home in the late 1600s, and cooks made “catchup” from mushrooms, walnuts and oysters long before anyone thought of adding tomatoes.

C. Admiral Lord Nelson At the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801, Nelson was signalled to withdraw. He reportedly raised his telescope to his blind eye, declared “I really do not see the signal”, fought on – and won. There’s a whole book on it: Did Nelson Turn a Blind Eye?

D. Little mouse Latin musculus means “little mouse”, from mus (mouse). To the Romans, a flexing muscle looked like a mouse scurrying under the skin. The same Latin word also gave us “mussel”.

A. A boundary marked by wooden stakes A pale was a pointed wooden stake (Latin palus) – the same root as “palisade”. A line of pales marked a fenced boundary, and the English-controlled area around Dublin became known as the Pale. Step beyond it and you were outside the bounds of safety, and later of decent behaviour.

B. Pan Pan, the goat-legged god of shepherds and wild places, was blamed for the sudden, groundless terror that could seize travellers in lonely spots. The Greeks called it panikon deima, “Pan’s fear”, and the word reached English by way of French.