BS: the word 'biff'

Subject: Folklore: the word 'biff'
From: keberoxu
Date: 27 Sep 20 - 12:10 PM

Much is being made below the line about
the word "biff." in informal English usage.

Others are free to post their opinions here about "biff",
its origins, its meaning,
and how outdated it is.


This opening post documents a specific usage of the word,
emphasizing how long ago this literature was published.

"Take that (biff) !
Ye'd be afther sthalin' a poor lone widdy's goat, would yez?
Ye'd be afther taking
me only comfort in me ould age, would yez?
An' whirra! whirra! ye yeller bellied thafe (biff)!
I'll tach ye, bedad, to come nosing around
afther other people's property, so I will!
Take that, now,
yer cross-eyed, pug-nosed pirate."
(Biff, biff, biff.)

-- from "Mrs. Maloney's Goat,"
Scrapes of Farmer Skoopendyke,
1880, New York: M. J. Ivers & Co.
No author identified.

Subject: RE: Folklore: the word 'biff'
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 27 Sep 20 - 12:36 PM

"Much is being made below the line about
the word "biff." in informal English usage."

No it's not..

That is a total over-exaggeration about a relatively trivial distraction
in an otherwise serious discussion about gratuitous warmongering...


"Biff" is a traditionally childish word, adults use it in a tongue in cheek manner;
and perhaps only silly people make too much fuss about it...

Subject: RE: Folklore: the word 'biff'
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 27 Sep 20 - 01:21 PM

Call me silly, if it pleases you;
but I don't find
either Charmion or her brother Andrew silly, thank you.

Subject: RE: Folklore: the word 'biff'
From: Senoufou
Date: 27 Sep 20 - 01:39 PM

Your lovely quote keberoxu made me think of my mother. She was from Cork, and spoke exactly like that! And 'biff' is used here in England quite normally. I didn't realise it's a bit outdated. We say, "Biff! Bam!" to describe a smack or a hit. I wouldn't say it's childish, as all the adults I know would use it.
Which thread is discussing it please? I'd like to read the comments.

Subject: RE: Folklore: the word 'biff'
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 27 Sep 20 - 01:42 PM

"Others are free to post their opinions here "...

.. as long as you like what what other mudcatters might post
in response to your invite...???...


btw.. I consider Charmion and her brother Andrew's posts
to be eminently sensible within the context of that thread...

Subject: RE: Folklore: the word 'biff'
From: Senoufou
Date: 27 Sep 20 - 01:43 PM

Ah, I see it's the Falklands War thread. I've never heard of 'biffing' meaning to annihilate a lot of men.
And it definitely isn't restricted to a Boys' Own comic type of exclamation.
And stop being horrid to keberoxu.

Subject: RE: Folklore: the word 'biff'
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 27 Sep 20 - 01:49 PM

Sen - I'm not being at all 'horrid'..

But in this prevailing internet climate
it's easy to understand how 'rational/reasonable/objective'
can be willfully misconstrued as 'horrid'..

.. even by more usually fair minded folks like yourself...???

Subject: RE: Folklore: the word 'biff'
From: GUEST,Kenny B (inactive)
Date: 27 Sep 20 - 01:59 PM

to quote the Brilliant Frank Carson ----- "Its the way I tell'em"

How about Biffo the Bear of Beano fame a spiffing childrens comic character

Subject: RE: BS: Folklore: the word 'biff'
From: Joe Offer
Date: 27 Sep 20 - 02:06 PM

Moving this down to the non-music section. We would have kept it up top if it was discussing language as it relates to music.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Folklore: the word 'biff'
From: Raggytash
Date: 27 Sep 20 - 02:07 PM

Keberoux,

It the context of the thread you were referring too "biffing" meant the slaughter of young men from another country.

In Boys comics it may be deemed acceptable.

It the context of war it is not, I would consider, a good term to use.

In fact I would consider it gratuitous.

Subject: RE: Folklore: the word 'biff'
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 27 Sep 20 - 02:11 PM

Kenny - Biffo is the first thing which comes to mind
on the rare occasions I read the word "Biff" in adult debate..

Perhaps, kids grew up with more robust, less easily offended personalities,
back in the heyday era of classic British comics...?????

From the 1960s, to recent times,
at least our culture could tolerantly accommodate both Bully Beef and Biffa Bacon...

Subject: RE: BS: Folklore: the word 'biff'
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 27 Sep 20 - 02:15 PM

oh goody.. now this thread is down in BS,
no more need to pull punches..


This thread just seemed to me to be another of Keb's thinly disguised attempts
at shit stirring for the sake of it...

Subject: RE: BS: Folklore: the word 'biff'
From: Bill D
Date: 27 Sep 20 - 02:41 PM

I just have images of word balloons in old cartoon strips like Dick Tracy, The Katzenjammer Kids, or Mutt & Jeff.... then Batman TV shows in the 60s.
Not something to fight over....

Subject: RE: BS: Folklore: the word 'biff'
From: Jeri
Date: 27 Sep 20 - 03:04 PM

It'a attention-craving.
It'a also not Folklore.
But a few people liked it enough to reply, so...

Subject: RE: BS: the word 'biff'
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 27 Sep 20 - 03:24 PM

"I just have images of word balloons in old cartoon strips like Dick Tracy, The Katzenjammer Kids, or Mutt & Jeff.... then Batman TV shows in the 60s.
Not something to fight over.... "

Exactly - this lot find any excuse to belittle a good biffing!!!

Subject: RE: BS: the word 'biff'
From: keberoxu
Date: 27 Sep 20 - 03:43 PM

My earliest two memories of "Biff" are these:

Death of a Salesman, the play by Arthur Miller:
the salesman protagonist has an adult son known as Biff.


Initiate in the Dark Cycle,
a roman à clef by Cyril Meir Scott,
has a character who says that an unexpected turn of events is
"a biff in the solar plexus."

Subject: RE: BS: the word 'biff'
From: Joe_F
Date: 27 Sep 20 - 06:15 PM

The OED has "I hit him, _biff_, alongside his smeller" from 1847.

"Biff" also appears to be a fairly common (male) nickname. It is the name of the hero in a pornographic comic I enjoy, in which the blows are not of that kind.

Subject: RE: BS: the word 'biff'
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 27 Sep 20 - 06:22 PM

There was a rough boy at school nicknamed Biff, someone you didn't pick a fight with!

Subject: RE: BS: the word 'biff'
From: Mrrzy
Date: 27 Sep 20 - 08:00 PM

Biff! Bang! Pow! says Batman to me.

Biff was the bully in Back to the Future, no?

Subject: RE: BS: the word 'biff'
From: Jeri
Date: 27 Sep 20 - 08:48 PM

Biff in Back to the Future was modeled on Donald Trump.

Subject: RE: BS: the word 'biff'
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 27 Sep 20 - 09:14 PM

Lighten up, chaps and chapesses, and look up biffin's bridge. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: the word 'biff'
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 27 Sep 20 - 09:34 PM

"biffin's bridge."

errrrmm.. as I said in my first post to this thread..


".. adults use it in a tongue in cheek manner.."...

Subject: RE: BS: the word 'biff'
From: Mr Red
Date: 28 Sep 20 - 05:40 PM

In my old school there was a tradition of using the word in two related contexts.

One would be a physical punch

The other a fart

Subject: RE: BS: the word 'biff'
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 28 Sep 20 - 06:01 PM

Would that be tongue twixt cheeks, pfr?

(Moving swiftly on, coat on arm...)

Subject: RE: BS: the word 'biff'
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 28 Sep 20 - 06:06 PM

Speaking of Biffin's bridge, somewhere I have a photo of Boris standing very close to, but not quite touching, Trump. The caption says that the gap between the two men is known as the perineum...

And that reminds me of what George Galloway (who God preserve) said about Tony Blair and Gordon Brown: "They are just two cheeks of the same arse..."

Subject: RE: BS: the word 'biff'
From: Charmion
Date: 28 Sep 20 - 08:24 PM

Thanks for the vote of confidence, keberoxu. I appreciate that.

As for "biff", I remain convinced that it's not a serious word for use by serious people discussing serious things.

Steve, I'm going to have to steal that line of George Galloway's ... Not sure when I'll have to use it, but definite the occasion will come up, and soon.

Subject: RE: BS: the word 'biff'
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 29 Sep 20 - 10:56 AM

My straw hat at school was always referred to as a boater, but the equivalent at our local public school was apparently known as a ‘biff’.

Either way, they made a merry blaze on the last day of the last term....

Subject: RE: BS: the word 'biff'
From: keberoxu
Date: 29 Sep 20 - 06:45 PM

if there were such a dish
as biff-a-roni,
what would it be made of
and how would one prepare it and serve it?

Subject: RE: BS: the word 'biff'
From: Charmion
Date: 29 Sep 20 - 07:00 PM

Schnitzel, or escallop of veal, of course. Those sad collops battered into flat submission by heavy-handed kitchen prep guys armed with nubbly hammers.

Subject: RE: BS: the word 'biff'
From: BrooklynJay
Date: 30 Sep 20 - 07:54 AM

In the Popeye the Sailor theme song (written around 1932 or 1933, IIRC) there is the line

I biffs 'em and boffs 'em...


Jay

Subject: RE: BS: the word 'biff'
From: keberoxu
Date: 30 Sep 20 - 03:02 PM

Ahhhhh, Popeye. That's more like it.

Subject: RE: BS: the word 'biff'
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 03 Oct 20 - 05:39 AM

Ice cream vans in the Uk seem to mostly use popeye the sailor man as their tune - always very loud and distorted!!

Subject: RE: BS: the word 'biff'
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 03 Oct 20 - 06:02 AM

We had one that played "Boys and girls come out to play". On the second run through it dropped into the minor key and sounded quite scary!

Subject: RE: BS: the word 'biff'
From: EBarnacle
Date: 04 Oct 20 - 05:29 PM

I have seen "biffy" referring to the seat of ease in rural back yards. Not recently, though.

Subject: RE: BS: the word 'biff'
From: Mr Red
Date: 04 Oct 20 - 06:32 PM

Ice cream vans in the Uk seem to mostly use popeye the sailor man as their tune

Round our way "Greensleaves" seems to be popular. Always loud. Though there is a law that says they should only make a noise while they are moving. I believe is is a national law (England & Wales anyway). Maybe tied in with horns etc.

Subject: RE: BS: the word 'biff'
From: Jim McLean
Date: 05 Oct 20 - 04:45 AM

George Galloway said Brown and Blair were two cheeks of the same arse. He came between them.

Subject: RE: BS: the word 'biff'
From: Charmion
Date: 05 Oct 20 - 09:47 AM

EBarnacle, "biffy" has that meaning in eastern Ontario, too. It's a useful word when the company is too high-flown to say "crapper".

Subject: RE: BS: the word 'biff'
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 05 Oct 20 - 11:38 AM

Biffy Clyro- superb Scottish rock band, seen them several times.

https://youtu.be/mAh--lH0H3U

Subject: RE: BS: the word 'biff'
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 05 Oct 20 - 11:50 AM

Try again...

Biffy Clyro - ‘Many of Horror’

Subject: RE: BS: the word 'biff'
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 05 Oct 20 - 12:42 PM

The word "Biffter" has recently been lurking in the back of my mind,
why, or what it means, was completely lost from my memory...???

So I just finally got off my arse and googled it...

Apparently one meaning is [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=biffter]

"Biffter
Word used to describe a cone made out of very thin paper, filled with tobacco
mixed with an illegal substance which, when smoked like a cigarette, affects the human nervous system.
Commonly known as joint or j"

That could be why this word became erased from my thoughts until this thread jogged my memory...???

But if I did ever hear or say "biffter" in any social context,
that would have been waaaaay back in the 1970s...