Words with unknown origins
The BBC and the Oxford English Dictionary are trying to track down the first use and origin of some 50 words or phrases which have crept into the English langauge without the OED having noticed at the time. So, if you can produce evidence, which can be irrefutably dated, of where to bonk, codswollop, the Old Bill, a ploughman’s lunch or any of the other 46 terms here came from, get in touch with the BBC.