 sj |
||
|
||
Colloquialisms II - for faster loading
|
|
|
Subject: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: katlaughing Date: 11 Apr 99 - 06:11 PM Just figured maybe we should start another generation of these, as the other is getting so long, it takes quite a bit of time to load and I know some on here have said they may not have the capacity of time for a long one. So, anymore? I've really, really enjoyed everyone's postings. BTW, whenever I read an English novel and read the word "plimsoll", I thought they were refering to a delicate ladies' slipper? Could that have been where the word originated from? Over here in the US, rubber-soled gym shoes would be that or sneaks or sneakers and well as tennies or tennis shoes. Women's high heels are called pumps.I have a girlfriend who says any high heels over 3 inches are called "F*#& me, heels"! Mainly because ya' can't walk in 'em, so that's about all they are good for. **NOI** For those of you in OZ: saw my first robin last weekend, in the middle of a wet, wet snowstorm which left a three & a half foot drift at our front door. Crazy bird! Happy autumn to you all. katlaughing |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: Mo Date: 11 Apr 99 - 06:44 PM No Kat, a plimsoll is the same over here - that rubber soled gym shoe. Can't remember why, but there is also the Plimsoll line on a ship which is it's loading levels - named after someone called Plimsoll who worked out all the mathematics of it - maybe a connection? We also call them sandshoes (abbreviated to sannies or saunies) in Scotland. I've heard heeled shoes called pumps too - but in the UK they're more typically called court shoes. Pumps to me suggests flat shoes. Three inches?? ALL my court shoes are over three inches! It's when they get over five....!! What about flip-flops do you have them over there? Those flat rubbery beach shoes which are held on by a thong between your big toe and the rest? And just to add to the confusion bedroom slippers are sometimes called baffies here - or maybe thats just my family... Shoeless Mo from soggy Glasgow. |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: katlaughing Date: 11 Apr 99 - 08:19 PM Flip-flops or thongs, over here, as well as Tivas (tee-vahz) for the brand most popular. baffies? That's good, I'll have to start using that one! I love it! Is it derived from "baffled"?**Smile** katl |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: catspaw49 Date: 11 Apr 99 - 08:46 PM Since y'all are on the subject, why are those slide-in shoes caled "MULES?" catspaw |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: Barbara Date: 11 Apr 99 - 08:58 PM The thingie to hold your hair back, or in a pincurl in US of A is called a bobby pin, but my M'in-law, who hails from Godalming(sp?)in the UK calls them 'curvy grips'. I thought for the longest time she was saying "Kirby grip" and it was a brand name.
Joe, guess my folks who were born and raised in Highland Park(in the middle of Detroit) are relative newcomers compared to your kin, but mine say "Lasher", I'm pretty sure. I WILL double check it. |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: Banjer Date: 11 Apr 99 - 09:03 PM Lord now we're talkin' bout foot wear..and while we're on the subject what are "trainers" in the UK? I've seen references to that term several times and can only assume some form of sneakers. Just to keep this thread "music oriented"..... Beans, beans the musical fruit, They produce a smell not unlike my boot! Surely you see the connection? |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: katlaughing Date: 11 Apr 99 - 09:21 PM rubber bands, for the hair, are refered to, at least by everyone I met, as "elastics" in New England. Were "mules" originally made from muleskin? cattywampus sounds related to some of the New england Indian names, such as Misquamicut (a beach in RI) |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: Mo Date: 11 Apr 99 - 09:25 PM Banjer - trainers are indeed sneakers - short for training shoes, usually your more heavy duty footwear than the aforementioned plimsolls. Frequently worn with a pair of trackie bums/bottoms (tracksuit bottoms). Barbara - you were right first time - it is a Kirby grip! Your spelling is spot on too, pronounced, as I'm sure you are well aware, "Goddle-ming". Appropos of absolutely nothing there is a great saying in the RN "Thats life in a blue suit" - basically it means in life you gotta take the rough with the smooth and just get on with without whingeing. Actually there's loads of stuff to do with sailing as I think Bert mentioned in the other thread like doing your washing is called "Dhobeying" which you do with "Dhobey dust" - washing powder. I love colloqialisms, 'specially other peoples - you get so used to your own you end up not noticing them. Mo |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: Susan A-R Date: 11 Apr 99 - 09:45 PM How about soda or "pop, or as some Boston area New Englanders say "tonic" Then there's those big fat sandwiches, Hogies, heroes, subs, dagwoods, . . . Back on food again, guess it's my obsession and signature. (can you believe that I'm one of those relatively skinny cooks that I never thought I'd trust,) |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: Banjer Date: 11 Apr 99 - 10:37 PM If were going to go to food, add the ongoing confusion of GYROS, is it a gIro or a Hero? Have heard so many different pronunciations of that word. Tarpon Springs, a predominately Greek community not far from here is no help, they call them by both names there and both sides claim they are using the original version. |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: catspaw49 Date: 11 Apr 99 - 11:32 PM That's exactly why all the Geerow,Jeerow,Gearrow,Jeerrow,Heerow,Highrow joints fold up. Nobody can say it and everybody's too embarassed to ask, so they have a Big Mac instead. What a gawdawful sandwich that is.....the only times I've ever had a "Big Mac Attack" is about 20 minutes AFTER I've eaten one!!! Ah, Tarpon Springs....very Greek and very fishing oriented, and a "quaint" little place to boot. There is however an odd smell in the air of deadfish and nutmeg. catspaw |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: Pete M Date: 11 Apr 99 - 11:47 PM Well I thought Giro's was how you were sent your dole money. Since Mo mentioned it, two RN ones I still find myself using are: "Different ship different cap tally." = the same thing may be done differently in differnt places; and its obverse, frequently said as a rejoinder to the above: "Yeh, but they're all painted the same shade of grey." ie differences are only superficial. Pete M |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: rich r Date: 12 Apr 99 - 12:30 AM I beg forgiveness if this was already mentioned in the massive prequel thread, but there is a very similar discussion going on at www.salonmagazine.com in the "table talk" section. Theirs began March 24 with the basic "pop" vs "soda" dichotomy and has diverged. When I last looked there were over 180 posts to that one. It is a bit more manageable because you only get 10 or so at a time and reload as you go. that also means you can quit any time without feeling guilty about waiting half a day for the whole thing to load. I don't know how much duplication there is because I haven't plunged deeply into either the Mudcat or the Salon series. rich r |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: JB3 Date: 12 Apr 99 - 12:31 AM When I first moved to Kentucky (Somerset is somewhat south and east of Berea, I went to college there, too), there were several turns of phrase that surprised me. I asked for a lift to the store and my cousin said, "I don't care to," meaning she didn't mind. They also use the term "stove-up", as in she fell up the stairs and stove up her fingers, or my back is all stove up. I guess this is because a stovepipe collapses on itself? I especially like the way they call Chevys "shivvys" or "shiver-lays" and motorcycles "sickles". Athens Ky is pronounced with a long A. Versailles is ver-sales. June |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: catspaw49 Date: 12 Apr 99 - 03:02 AM Hi JB3....Lived myself for a couple years in Someset, actually Bronstan, across the Lake from Burnside. Best thing was that my home was exactly on the point where Big South Fork bends into the Lake; only time I ever lived in a house you could literally pinpoint on a National map! You're into dance aren't you? Were you around Berea during the time of Ethel Capps? Just wonderin'? And close bt Somerset you left out another town, Monticello...pronounced Monta-sella. catspaw |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: Steve Parkes Date: 12 Apr 99 - 04:01 AM I always thought it was the French who spell better than they pronounce? Or was Bugs just trying to divert attention? Steve |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: AlistairUK Date: 12 Apr 99 - 06:05 AM Okay, food especially sandwiches were called Sarnies where I come from. Then you had filled baps...which I mentioned to a friend of mine from the north of england and he thought I was talking about a "well stacked bird". just to bring the tone down I saw Tarpon in the thread and thought it was tampon so here are the "colloquialisms" I know for female hygenic products. Tammies...jamrags. I am sure that I have just offended someone...but for condoms ( take note Art) there's skins...overcoats and macs...also wellies...johnnies. |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: Tucker Date: 12 Apr 99 - 06:18 AM Catspaw and Alistar, you have made my morning. Alistar you win but by a .........sorry I can't use it here. LMAO. jammies....did you make that up?? Some colloq's from here in southern ohio. Soddie for Scioto turned around.......lost sauce.......chili dog cock.......female genitilia ( explain that to me!!!) |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: katlaughing Date: 12 Apr 99 - 09:34 AM My girldfriend calls hers a "twidgett". She and her boyfriend came up with that, so that they could joke about it in "polite company" and none the wiser. They felt there were plenty euphemisms for the male appendage, but not much that wasn't considerd vulgar and was easily recognizable for the female. |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: AlistairUK Date: 12 Apr 99 - 09:40 AM kat: I was thinking more along the lines about why you guys where at certain times of the month...but twidget has now become part of my sexual lexicon :o). A male appendage was colourfuly known as a todger where I come from. |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: The_one_and_only_Dai Date: 12 Apr 99 - 10:12 AM Training shoes/plimsolls. Hm. Known as 'daps' where I come from, never worked that one out. Miners' overshoes? Mr. Plimsoll was an MP or something, he suggested that ships have a line painted around them so that one could tell if they were overloaded. My understanding was that somebody noticed the line around the sole on the shoes, and remarked upon the similarity. |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: Steve Parkes Date: 12 Apr 99 - 10:42 AM Samuel Plimsoll. He was very concerned about working conditions for merchant sailors in the nineteenth century. I think he published a book called "The Sailor's Friend". At any rate, he introduced a lot of reforms which were unpopular with ship owners, including the Plimsoll line. This was orignally a single line (with a circle through it) painted on the side of a ship, showing the deepest safe loading the ship could take. The idea was to stop insurance scams, where the ship was overloaded so it sank (with loss of hands, officers and any passengers!), so the owners could claim the insurance. It became law after long and bitter arguments between the interested lobbies in Parliament; but the bad guys got it amended so they could paint the line where they wanted, instead of where the Board of Trade would have put it. Er ... what was the question?! Talking of alternative names for naughty bits, A. P. Herbert wrote a very amusing (and not offensive) poem on the subject, which I can't for the life of me remember, except it refers to "such a short and unattrctive little word". Any offers? Steve |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: AlistairUK Date: 12 Apr 99 - 11:29 AM Thank you Steve, I always wanted to know the origin of the name of the plimmies I used to wear when I was tearing about the freezing jim in my vest and shorts in infants school. My mum used to by us plimsolls thinking that they were okay and it was bloody years before I could persuade her to buy me a nice trendy pair of trainers from Tesco's. |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: catspaw49 Date: 12 Apr 99 - 11:48 AM One of the guys at the local radio station was searching for a different word (the station I gave you the website to kat) and they all agreed on Hoozhee. This was about the time the subject came up with our youngest, so a Hoozhee he had. This could have worked out better as when he started school he evidently told another boy he was wrong about having a penis...it was a hoozhee!!!(Yeah, that's my boy alright) This conversation took place while they were going to the restroom before lunch. We get a call that evening from an irate mother who explains that she has always been medically accurate with her children and we should be too, and that her son was somehow traumatized by all this! I stood in the kitchen listening to Karen take this for 15 minutes and finally took the phone and asked her what we were expected to do. She launched into a long harangue and I stopped her and asked again. She said that we should teach our children proper medical terminology. SO (catspaw goes over the top in his real life too) I asked which she would prefer, Dick or Cock? At this point I still don't know as she hung up on me. catspaw |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: AlistairUK Date: 12 Apr 99 - 11:53 AM Sounds to me like you were making an offer there 'Paw. |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: Bert Date: 12 Apr 99 - 05:28 PM Penny, continuing place names in England. How does one pronounce "Meopham"?? Bert. |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: Penny Date: 12 Apr 99 - 05:50 PM Tricky, like trying to transcribe Sahrf Lun'on. Nearest is Mep'm, but I've just noticed there's almost a short 'o' between the p and the m instead of the usual uh vowel as in Peck'm. It is supposed to be the longest village in England, and has one of the oldest cricket clubs. Also incomers who buy houses by the cricket ground and then try to stop matches because of the threat to their windows. And a very good old fashioned baker. |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: AlistairUK Date: 12 Apr 99 - 05:54 PM the úh'sound is called a schwa Penny and it does come into Mep'm but in a very flattened form. |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: Penny Date: 12 Apr 99 - 05:58 PM Good, I can leave that sort of thing to you instead of sitting here thinking "do I really say it like that?", and after a while thinking I can't do. Then there was the time I dialled a Meopham number and was answered, in a beautiful soft Gaelic voice, "Machrihanish?" and she really was there, not Meopham. |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: Penny Date: 12 Apr 99 - 06:25 PM And now I know what to call the thing that determined the whole shape of my teaching life. At college I had a difference of opinion with tutors from the Initial teaching Alphabet people, who were very convincing until we were required to write the story of Cinderella in ITA, and I got stuck on the name. Given that the premise of ITA was that each symbol represented a single definite sound (although that sound might vary from accent to accent), and there was no ambiguity, I couldn't get past representing the schwa as an e after the d, and an a after the l. So given a choice between an ITA school and a non-ITA school, I wasn't going where I would constantly have to monitor my spelling for disguised schwas. What would my life have been if the ITA had included a sign for it? Who can tell? |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: AlistairUK Date: 12 Apr 99 - 06:34 PM lord olord..I remeber ITA when I was at infants school. I could never understand it because I had learned to read and write normally before I got to school. So all those Paul and Sally books made no sense to me, though I liked the pictures. They had to get my mother in because they thought I had some learning disability. She had to explain to my teachers that i already nknew how to read and write. Did they evr have this nonsense in the U.S. ? |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: Bert Date: 12 Apr 99 - 06:59 PM Thanks Penny & Alistair. I'd forgotten about the ITA disaster. I remember a kid down our street who flat out refused to learn it because it wasn't 'real' reading. My own daughter had a similar problem. She was way ahead in arithmetic and went to a new school where they used Cusenaire Rods. She came home and said "These teachers have the stupid idea that a pink rod and a yellow rod equals a green rod" (Or whatever the colors are). Do teachers still use these *%^$&# gimmicks to bring everyone down to the 'idiot level'? Bert. |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: Penny Date: 12 Apr 99 - 07:10 PM I haven't met ITA for years and years. Cuisenaire and Colorfactor rods still have a use, but need to be used judicially, where needed. I find that looking at the proportions, rather than the colours, helps children who have a weak grasp of number relationships. And I always use number words, not colours. Research shows that at least some children do need the physical prompt of handling things to reinforce number sense, and apparently (this is my sister's field of work) even adults can need to revisit concrete expressions of mathematical concepts. I think the problem was, as you hinted, that things which were needed by some children, and at different times, were imposed on all, all the time. If imposed on all, one usually finds that there are a lot of small log cabins, towers, seesaws and catapults about where one isn't, and all the lower value rods are oin top of the cupboards or behind the radiators! |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: Cuilionn Date: 12 Apr 99 - 09:02 PM Back tae th' wee sandwich debate... I wis recently visitin' a friend on th' Amurrican East Coast, an' noticed a wee shop advertisin' "Hot Italians Here." I askit ma friend what sairt o' folk th' locals were, tae think they cuid get awa' wi' sic ethnic slurs an' sic... turns oot that an "Italian" is th' same thing as th' "Hoagy" I grew up enjoyin' in th' Amurrican Northwest: a delicatessen sandwich, usually made on a "hoagy roll" or "french roll", laden wi' meat an' cheese. 'Minds me o' th' puir Oregon lad whae went tae study in London for hauf a year, an' went intae a shop tae ask for "a ham and cheese sandwich." He cuidnae understand why th' lady ahint th' coonter keppit hollerin' "BAP!" at him!!! --Cuilionn, whae disnae want her soda breid confused wi' "pop" breid or "tonic" breid ava'! |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: alison Date: 13 Apr 99 - 12:20 AM hi, Yeah try asking an Aussie what they want on their bap, or in their piece... and they look at you as if you're mad. Jammies..... were always pyjamas (or PJ's, or jimjams).... ""go and get yer jammies on" Slainte alison |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: dick greenhaus Date: 13 Apr 99 - 12:30 AM Steve Parkes- The poem you refer to is in the database--Search for [Doctor's Lament]. Are you sure of the authorship? |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: Penny Date: 13 Apr 99 - 03:10 AM Used to be able to buy huffkins at Kentish bakers, there was a good one in Dover market square. Now its always baps, which are similar, but not the same. I like stotty cakes, when in Northumbria, which are again similar, but much bigger. They do filled ones like sarnies. |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: Steve Parkes Date: 13 Apr 99 - 03:32 AM Dick, I'm never really sure about anything (after all, isn't everything merely an illusion?), but I find if I say something boldly and with confidence, people will believe it! Seriously, I heard the first part, The Doctor's Lament, quoted by Anna Raeburn, a British agony aunt, on BBC Radio 4 a few years ago. She attributed it to A. P. Herbert, which was a little bit of a surprise; I know his humorous short stories, but I've never come across any poetry by him. Maybe I should get put more! Steve |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: The_one_and_only_Dai Date: 13 Apr 99 - 03:41 AM Mo: Dhobi is Hindi (or something) for laundry. See Steve Parkes' entries in the other thread about the 'wallah' suffix. It's in use in the army as well as the RN. |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: AlistairUK Date: 13 Apr 99 - 06:03 AM I use cuisinaire rods in teaching english as a foreign language, they're great to show how a sentence works. |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: Penny Date: 13 Apr 99 - 06:52 AM I see how that would work - I have known colour used with words on blocks - I'll pass the idea on to our language unit. Not EFL, or ESL, but language processing problems. |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: Bert Date: 13 Apr 99 - 09:41 AM Arithmetic is a game that goes "Let's pretend that we can have numbers without quantities". All that those $*%&# rods do is re-associate the quantities. They miss the whole point of what arithmetic is trying to do in the first place - separate number and quantity. Bert. |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: Steve Parkes Date: 13 Apr 99 - 11:57 AM If we're going to discus number theory, I think we should have a separate thread. Well, don't look at me! I do know the ancient Greeks were unable to develop algebra, since they reasoned "x2 + x" is adding an area to a length, which is silly. Didn't bother the Babylonians, though: they invented the formula for solving quadratic equations by geometry. Steve P.S. If you want to know more, there's a site called "Ask Dr Math" somewhere, but you have to be still at school (or a liar!) to qualify. |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: AlistairUK Date: 13 Apr 99 - 12:22 PM So Steve, you still at school then? Which form? |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: Bert Date: 13 Apr 99 - 01:21 PM Sorry Steve, that's thread drift for you, or should we say Mudcattywampus. Bert. |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: AlistairUK Date: 13 Apr 99 - 02:42 PM Names for abodes: I know gaff, pad, |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: Bert Date: 13 Apr 99 - 03:50 PM Give me a key and I'll play in any flat. |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: Mo Date: 13 Apr 99 - 06:41 PM Anyone fancy a fly's graveyard after their piece? It's a small cake made up of two squares of pastry - flaky, I think, with a currant mixture in between. It's posh name (now there's an old colloquialism for you - Port Out Starboard Home) is a fruit square. Fly's graveyard is more graphic though..... Mo |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: Den Date: 13 Apr 99 - 07:26 PM Nothing but shocked faces, in a bar with a bunch of guys from the building site, not long after arriving in Canada, after my announcement that I would like to be knocked up at 7 am. What ever happened to the English language. |
|
Subject: RE: Colloquialisms II - for faster loading From: Penny Date: 13 Apr 99 - 07:32 PM Mo, we had something similar at school, called dry fly pie. |
| Share Thread: |