BS: Phrases that don't travel

Subject: RE: BS: Phrases that don't travel
From: Ebbie
Date: 01 Sep 10 - 10:00 PM

"joined up"? Rather redundant, isn't it?

Subject: RE: BS: Phrases that don't travel
From: Emma B
Date: 01 Sep 10 - 09:02 PM

"Cor Blimey!" (or Gor Blimey!) is derived from the middle ages expression "God, Blind Me!", used as an exclamation of surprise
You may also hear "cor, love a duck!" :)

Subject: RE: BS: Phrases that don't travel
From: michaelr
Date: 01 Sep 10 - 08:47 PM

A word that I've come across in a book by a British writer that baffles me is "cor". Can anyone translate?

Subject: RE: BS: Phrases that don't travel
From: Bill D
Date: 01 Sep 10 - 08:33 PM

No, I'd have no idea what MOT means out of context.,,,but we have similar phrases...

"..., if you don't say "joined-up" in relation to writing,..."
...well, it can fairly easily explained with a little effort, if required. I react to 'joined-up' as a very NON technical phrase instead of a formal description. If I was designing a curriculum, I'd formally define the idea with a single word LIKE script or cursive, just because if has a more formal, official sound to it.

Subject: RE: BS: Phrases that don't travel
From: frogprince
Date: 01 Sep 10 - 08:26 PM

"knock me up in the morning."
Druther not; I dislike inuendos.

Subject: RE: BS: Phrases that don't travel
From: Donuel
Date: 01 Sep 10 - 08:10 PM

knock me up in the morning.

Subject: RE: BS: Phrases that don't travel
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 01 Sep 10 - 08:09 PM

That reminds me of another - we (in the UK) still use the expression "MOT", both in respect of car roadworthiness tests, and also metaphorically - "get a medical MOT". But of course there hasn't been a "Ministry of Transport for years. And I assume that when we use it to most Americans, they can't have a clue what we mean.

Subject: RE: BS: Phrases that don't travel
From: Dave MacKenzie
Date: 01 Sep 10 - 07:40 PM

I remember "First Down" magazine referring to NFL coaches receiving their P45s, which I always assumed was inaccurate as the P45 is a specific Inland Revenue document in the UK.

Subject: RE: BS: Phrases that don't travel
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 01 Sep 10 - 07:38 PM

Except they don't actually mean the same thing. Handwriting quite often isn't cursive/joined up.

But this is drift in this particular thread, as opposed to this thread - BS: Cursive writing outdated?

Subject: RE: BS: Phrases that don't travel
From: Alice
Date: 01 Sep 10 - 07:29 PM

script
cursive
hand writing
Those are all terms used here for the same thing.

Subject: RE: BS: Phrases that don't travel
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 01 Sep 10 - 07:20 PM

My point in the example was that, if you don't say "joined-up" in relation to writing, they won't be likely to be sure what "joined-up" means when it comes to thinking.

Another example might be, in a place where all the cars are automatic, imagery about "getting stuck in first gear" and so forth can't convey too much.

And the same kind of thing is liable to happen over time - if we all end up wearing foot gear with velcro fastening, phrases involving bootlaces would be marooned.

I'm sure there are lots of examples of that having happened, where we still use the terms,but with no idea of what they actually refer to.

Subject: RE: BS: Phrases that don't travel
From: Amos
Date: 01 Sep 10 - 07:02 PM

Swap out has earlier roots before memory swaps, as in swapping out a burned out carb for a Hollis dual-barrel on a hot-rod in the 50's.

And cursive was well-known and widely used in common parlance in my part of New England in the same period.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Phrases that don't travel
From: Ebbie
Date: 01 Sep 10 - 07:00 PM

I agree- 'cursive' is very commonly used. It is not a high brow elitist word...

Subject: RE: BS: Phrases that don't travel
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 Sep 10 - 06:55 PM

Not me. I love to hear the different pronunciations and accents and would find it boring if they were all tailored for the audience.

"Cursive" has been used wherever I've been since I can remember, between teacher and students and elsewhere. I do say my handwriting sucks, but I mean that about ALL of my handwriting which comes out a combo of print and cursive looking like some kinda crazy chickenscratch, even though I know better.

Subject: RE: BS: Phrases that don't travel
From: Amergin
Date: 01 Sep 10 - 06:53 PM

I found that phrases will travel a long way if your voice is loud enough....

Subject: RE: BS: Phrases that don't travel
From: Bill D
Date: 01 Sep 10 - 06:48 PM

hmmm.. well, *I* have heard 'cursive' used often, since I did go to college and hung out with pretty well educated folks. I also heard 'handwriting' used to mean almost the same thing by almost everyone.

Oh, and "scoring an own goal" is quite well understood by now by anyone who watches soccer at all.

One thing, Kevin... I see an amazing number of TV programs here featuring English/UK (and Irish) actors and speech patterns & pronunciation. Comedy, drama...and science-wildlife documentaries are common...some with accents so pronounced that they distract me from the topic. I'm not sure who influences whom the most, but I do noticed how 'generally' reluctant most people are to change the way they say or do things from the way they learned in childhood.


"Swap out" almost always means 'take out one and put in another'. This 'usually' means an identical part, but can mean an upgrade.


I have watched documentaries where comments from both Brits and Yanks were edited in, with each pronouncing 'al-you-MIN-e-um' or 'PITza" (pizza) in their own way....sometimes at the same table. There's no 'right' way to spell or say something, but I do wish that more effort was made to tailor programs to the audience who will hear it.(that is, have the background announcer overdubbed, even when participants are using a language or accent that is hard to follow).

Subject: RE: BS: Phrases that don't travel
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 01 Sep 10 - 06:46 PM

Swap in and swap out-
In data handling, when set of paged data sets are moved to auxilliary storage to real storage during execution of any job is called swap-in, The reverse is swap-out.
Or the two phrases mean transfer of the whole content from main memory to virtual memory and vice-versa.

Found in computer-speak. No, I didn't know either until I looked it up.

Subject: RE: BS: Phrases that don't travel
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 01 Sep 10 - 06:38 PM

In Oz, if not just saying 'handwriting', one might see 'cursive'...

"when the sports reporter announces cricket results, I am completely lost."

There is a version of cricket - now popularized as 'Beach Cricket' and also a slightly different form called 'Indoor Cricket' based on an old backyard variant called 'tip and run' or 'hit and run', where if you hit the ball you must run - sorta like baseball with a different shaped field ... :-)


Typo detected "There is a version of fricket" ... yeah, ... :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Phrases that don't travel
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 01 Sep 10 - 06:19 PM

As noted in the other thread, neither 'joined-up' nor cursive would be common in American speech. People speak of hand-written notes or manuscripts. Cursive dates back to the 18th C., but it is found in manuals and books rather than in speech. Teachers would use it, but not to their pupils.

Terms from sports that are uncommon in North America of course would not appear in speech. I listen to the BBC News channel here and when the sports reporter announces cricket results, I am completely lost.

Soccer is now popular in schools, esp. with younger children, but they may not know the lingo used in Europe.

Subject: RE: BS: Phrases that don't travel
From: Ebbie
Date: 01 Sep 10 - 06:15 PM

Yes. Yesterday I noted the phrase 'swap out'. What does that mean? In context it meant that they were either going to replace one with another or they were NOT going to. ??

Subject: BS: Phrases that don't travel
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 01 Sep 10 - 05:51 PM

In a current thread it came out in the course of conversation that where in England people would talk about a way of handwriting as "joined-up writing", Americans would be likely to say "cursive writing".

The consequence, if that's true, being that the common way we in the British Isles talk about "joined-up thinking" - or the lack of it (for example in the way the Iraq occupation was so badly bungled in the aftermath of the invasion) can't make much sense in America.

Similarly the expression "scoring an own goal" can't make that much sense in a non-football (soccer) culture.

And I'm sure there must be lots of other examples where that's true. True the other way also, except that we are so exposed to Americana on the TV that we tend to pick up that stuff by a process of osmosis. Less likely perhaps to be left stranded in mid-sentence wondering what the hell the other person is talking about.