gazelle in the garden
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Possibly from an Arabic word that means both beard and garden. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.
Noun
[edit]- (euphemistic, colloquial) Used during a meal to alert a family member or friend that they have a crumb on their face.
- Synonym: gazelle on the lawn
- 1990, Judith Roman, Annie Adams Fields: the spirit of Charles Street, page 12:
- The other ubiquitous anecdote, told by Harvard undergraduates who enjoyed poking gentle fun at the stately and aged Mrs. Fields, describes Annie saying "There's a gazelle in the garden" when she noticed food in her husband's beard at the dinner table.
- 1922, Ernest Wadsworth Longfellow, Random memories, page 35:
- If he got a crumb lodged in his beard, she would say, "Jamie, dear, there is a gazelle in the garden," which amused his friends and became a household expression in our family.
- 1956, Louise Hall Tharp, page 254
- At one of their literary dinners, should a crumb get caught in the luxuriant Fields beard — "There's a gazelle in the garden, Jamie," his wife would say.