Meaning & origin

Queen Anne is dead

2 sources
1 alternate wording
3 usage examples

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Meaning

A sarcastic response meaning that the supposed news is stale, obvious or universally known. A sarcastic rejoinder. It can sound needlessly sharp when the other speaker is merely sharing information. Regional use: British English.

Origin

Queen Anne died in 1714, but the idiom is not simply a report preserved from that moment. A related joke about Queen Elizabeth's death appears in Jonathan Swift's 1738 collection of stale conversational formulas. 'Queen Anne is dead' is found as a comic reference in 1774 and as the recognizable reply to old news by the end of the 18th century.

Research Sources

References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.

'Queen Elizabeth is dead' and 'Queen Anne is dead': meaning and origin Word Histories
Notes and Queries, Series 11, Volume 1, page 438 Wikisource transcription of Oxford University Press periodical

Variants

Queen Anne's dead

Usage Examples

So the station is crowded at rush hour? Queen Anne is dead.
When Tom solemnly announced that the roof leaked, his sister replied, 'Queen Anne is dead.'
The editor read the stale scoop and said, 'Queen Anne is dead; what else have you got?'

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