Armstrong later wrote a letter to the Times newspaper in which he said he derived the phrase from 18th Century statesman Edmund Burke.

BBC: The 10 most scandalous euphemisms

Meanwhile, the Ashmolean Museum, also in Oxford, has a tiny show of Brazilian baroque art, including expressive wood carvings by a legendary 18th-century mulatto sculptor who was nicknamed O Aleijadinho, the Little Cripple, because in later life he became so disfigured by disease that his assistants had to strap his tools to his wrists.

ECONOMIST: Brazilian art