Coin A Phrase
Meaning
When someone creates a new phrase, we say he has coined a phrase.
Origin
It is believed that the first use was in in George Puttenham’s The arte of English poesie, 1589:
“Young schollers not halfe well studied… will seeme to coigne fine wordes out of the Latin.”
In print media it was used by the Wisconsin newspaper The Southport American in July 1848:
“Had we to find… a name which should at once convey the enthusiasm of our feelings towards her, we would coin a phrase combining the extreme of admiration and horror and term her the Angel of Assassination.”
Francis Brett Young’s novel Mr. Lucton’s Freedom used this phrase in 1940:
“It takes all sorts to make a world, to coin a phrase.”