Day 21

How’s your father.

“Lady Mary and Lord Gillingham are still technically going steady, despite neither of them wanting to stay together, purely down to the fact that they once had some ‘how’s your father’.” — Digital Spy, Nov 3, 2014

“Office-induced stress, high blood pressure, heavy drinking brought on by the aforementioned stress, being handbagged by the wife for indulging in a bit of workplace-based how’s-yer-father, the list goes on.” — Lancashire Evening Post, Oct 22, 2014

A jocular term for copulation. World Wide Words traces it back to the fertile imagination of the music-hall comedian Harry Tate, whose catchphrase was picked up by servicemen in the First World War.

Also:

Shag: “Married men and women who try to pass off a one night stand as an ‘opportunistic shag‘ are often in denial about the state of their primary relationship.” — Huffington Post UK, Nov 12, 2014

Roger. From the mid 17th to the late 19th centuries, roger was slang for penis, probably because the name’s origin involved fame with a spear. Subsequently “to roger” became a slang verb form meaning “to have sex with”.