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HELP: English expressions
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Subject: HELP: English expressions From: Wolfgang Date: 10 Sep 01 - 09:33 AM I'm transcribing a couple of songs (idiom: US english) and ask you to help me with a few questions. Mostly I just want to know whether these below are legitimate expressions. What they mean if they are legitimate is less a problem unless I state otherwise: - 'he cranked up his Model T': is that the very old way (turn, turn turn) of starting a car which I only know from old movies? - 'he dragged her down': about a man searching/finding a woman: can it be said and if yes what does it mean? - 'mooning like a lovesick fool' can that be said? - 'the first time he met her he was cooked for good': can that be said? - 'love can boo me' can it be said and if yes, what does it mean; or what else could I have misheard - 'split log placed' at the cook stove. I'm sure I know what it is, but is it written split-log or as I have it in the quotation? The last one is a bit in which I have not found the correct word yet at one place and only give you my transliteration 'parton'. What could these two lines really be?:
It's a long way from knickers and the (high-cut) boots Thanks for your help. Wolfgang |
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Subject: RE: HELP: English expressions From: Noreen Date: 10 Sep 01 - 09:46 AM 1. yes 2.He tracked her down is more likely, meaning he sought and found her 3. yes 4. not sure what that would mean 5. no idea 6. don't know. Last one could be parting i.e. a combed parting in the hair- maybe brylcreem'd and slick to go with the brand-new suit? HTH Noreen |
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Subject: RE: HELP: English expressions From: IanC Date: 10 Sep 01 - 09:49 AM Wolfgang 6. You don't need a hyphen, so best off without.
:-) |
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Subject: RE: HELP: English expressions From: Noreen Date: 10 Sep 01 - 09:50 AM Can you give some more words that go with 'love can boo me' , Wolfgang? Context might help. Love can bore me? |
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Subject: RE: HELP: English expressions From: Snuffy Date: 10 Sep 01 - 09:51 AM Wolfgang, here's a few opinions: Model T - yes, start the car by turning the handle at the front. 'he dragged her down' - "tracked" is more likely if it's searching. Dragged her down means to reduce her social status (plenty of rich young ladies falling for ploughboys etc) mooning - walking around in a daze with a moon-face (usually a sign of infatuation) cooked - could be said, but it might more likely be hooked (like an angler hooks a fish) love can boo me - never heard this, and no idea what else it might be split log seems OK to me. I wouldn't go for split-log parton - that is a "parting" in the hair. In Britain men usually part their hair on the left and women on the right - unless they have a centre-parting of course! Wassail! V |
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Subject: RE: HELP: English expressions From: Noreen Date: 10 Sep 01 - 09:57 AM Glad we agree, Snuffy! :0) (Never thought of 'hooked' though.) |
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Subject: RE: HELP: English expressions From: Skipjack K8 Date: 10 Sep 01 - 10:00 AM I say, you're a jolly frank kind of girl, Noreen! |
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Subject: RE: HELP: English expressions From: Murray MacLeod Date: 10 Sep 01 - 10:06 AM Maybe Wolfgang's final transcription is an allusion to Dolly Parton abandoning her former sexy siren inage (knickers and high boots) for a staider ("down the middle"="middle of the road") persona, complete with sober suit. Then again, maybe not. Murray |
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Subject: RE: HELP: English expressions From: Wolfgang Date: 10 Sep 01 - 10:08 AM Thanks so far for the quick and helpful ideas.
I agree at once with 'tracked', I should have thought of that. 'Hooked', good idea, but I have to listen once more.
context: he pulled into Sydney and he tracked her down Wolfgang |
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Subject: RE: HELP: English expressions From: Noreen Date: 10 Sep 01 - 10:13 AM Note the question mark, Skippy... wasn't a personal opinion! :0) |
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Subject: RE: HELP: English expressions From: GUEST,Lanfranc at the orifice Date: 10 Sep 01 - 10:22 AM It could be "woo" rather than "boo", Wolfgang Alan |
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Subject: RE: HELP: English expressions From: English Jon Date: 10 Sep 01 - 10:38 AM How about "Bail me out"? EJ |
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Subject: RE: HELP: English expressions From: Amos Date: 10 Sep 01 - 12:12 PM Love can do me? Love can woo me? Love can bloom when out in Montana? |
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Subject: RE: HELP: English expressions From: wysiwyg Date: 10 Sep 01 - 12:17 PM Cooked is OK too-- if his goose was cooked. It would mean he was a goner. Gone-err. Depends on the context. Oh and love can imbue you with the strangest qualities. Im-byoo. ~S~
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Subject: RE: HELP: English expressions From: catspaw49 Date: 10 Sep 01 - 12:49 PM All good here but that boo-woo thing is odd.....Got any more of the context Wolf? I was thinking "boot" as in to get rid of.......Love booted me out in Montana....probably not, but I can see it working....Another line or two? Spaw |
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Subject: RE: HELP: English expressions From: wysiwyg Date: 10 Sep 01 - 12:59 PM Dunno about you, but love can fool me. ~S~ |
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Subject: RE: HELP: English expressions From: Wolfgang Date: 11 Sep 01 - 03:38 AM This morning my daughter looked very puzzled when her dad jumped up from the breakfast table spilling his tea with a loud scream of triumph and ran to the turntable. It was one of those moments in time when bits fall into place and you see the picture you had not seen before. Out of the blue without consciously thinking of that song I was sure what the last missing bit was. Just a question of making the word boundary at another place and taking into account the difficulties ve Germans have vith the 'w' sound. 'love can (boo me when) out in Montana' is in fact 'love can (boom even) out in Montana' (I tried hard to hear if there was an 'l' in 'boom' but there wasn't)
Thanks a lot worldwide and watch for Wolfgang |
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Subject: RE: HELP: English expressions From: paddymac Date: 11 Sep 01 - 04:01 AM I concur with Susan on the "his goose is cooked" expression. |
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Subject: RE: HELP: English expressions From: Noreen Date: 11 Sep 01 - 07:50 AM :0) |
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Subject: RE: HELP: English expressions From: Dicho (Frank Staplin) Date: 11 Sep 01 - 03:38 PM I have heard "boo me." It means do something to startle me or wake me up. Translate it as love "snuck" up on me, but I think it is passe kids lingo, so wouldn't use it. "Cooked" goes way back. We used to say "mooning like a lovesick calf," why I don't know- a calf may moo-n when it is hungry but lovesick? |
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Subject: RE: HELP: English expressions From: Chicken Charlie Date: 11 Sep 01 - 04:38 PM WYSIWIG already said it, but yes, idea is that the first time "he" saw "her," he fell so totally in love that the goose was cooked. Various critters bay at the moon, at least in folklore--evocative image of a lonesome dog or wolf (or coyote down here where I live) howling for its pack mates. That's being "moonstruck." I vote w/the folks who think of "down the middle" in connection with parting the hair down the middle, with the connotation of trying to be "proper." "Staid" would make sense. CC |
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Subject: RE: HELP: English expressions From: Noreen Date: 11 Sep 01 - 05:49 PM See Lyr add: Montana |
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Subject: RE: HELP: English expressions From: IanC Date: 06 Jul 07 - 05:16 AM Oh. "Love can BLOOM even out in Montana" ;-) |
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Subject: RE: HELP: English expressions From: Trevor Date: 06 Jul 07 - 07:46 AM Not quite 'on thread', but I had such a laugh yesterday when I was asked to write in a birthday card for a Finnish colleague. I went in to a translator site and asked for a translation for 'you may be old but you're still my favourite Finn'. After I'd written the result in the card I thought I'd check it back so put the Finnish phrase in and asked it to translate it back to English. It came back as 'you may be old but your acne is still my pet'! I twigged then that, of course, the Finnish word for Finnish is Suomi - 'finn' in Finnish means spots. Beware the Babelfish!! |
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Subject: RE: HELP: English expressions From: Alan Day Date: 06 Jul 07 - 09:36 AM Of course many get English sayings mixed up ,the guy I work with gets them all wrong.His classic last week was " I am working in a madhouse here. I'm losing my scruples". Al |
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Subject: RE: HELP: English expressions From: Jack Campin Date: 06 Jul 07 - 09:56 AM The last one might be "partan", Scots for crab. Love can *bloom*, surely. |
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Subject: RE: HELP: English expressions From: Rog Peek Date: 06 Jul 07 - 11:40 AM I'm sorry to bring down the tone, but 'mooning' can mean the vulgar act of dropping one's trousers and showing one's bare backside. |
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Subject: RE: HELP: English expressions From: Malcolm Douglas Date: 06 Jul 07 - 11:58 AM So it can, but context determines meaning; and the context here was specific (see Noreen's link above) so that particular usage is irrelevant on this occasion; as is Jack's (otherwise interesting) 'partan'. Do note that this is a very old discussion revived just the other day for mysterious reasons. Wolfgang subsequently started a new thread on the song (Noreen's link again) with a revised transcription and, the following day, with a correct one from the man who wrote the song. Unfortunately, an over-eager harvester had already copied the inaccurate version for the DT: where it remains, uncorrected, to this day. |
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Subject: RE: HELP: English expressions From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego Date: 06 Jul 07 - 02:39 PM 1. I'm old enough to remember an old Chevrolet that had a crank protruding from under the radiator. Not only did you have to turn the crank to start the car, but - if you didn't get your hand out of the way in time, the crank could flip around and break your arm. 2. Dragging someone down would be humiliating or rejecting or both. 3. Mooning refers to almost irrational, rapture-like state of mind of a person who is in love. If often refers to a teenager who is crazy about a boy (girl). 4. Cooked is simply a way of saying smitten or that you have fallen in love - head-over-heels in love. This is someone who is ready to do anything for the person he or she is crazy about. 5. A split log by a stove - sounds like a metaphor for a love waiting for a spark to start it. All the ingredients are in place. Someone has to make a move. 6. I'm not sure about the knickers metaphor, unless it has something to do with a young girl becoming involved with a slick-dressing older man who parts his hair (partin') in the middle, like an old- fashioned bartender. The knickers line almost sounds more like English than American english. Good luck. |
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Subject: RE: HELP: English expressions From: stallion Date: 06 Jul 07 - 02:58 PM I knew an italian ice cream seller who used to rant at us " you think i-a know bugger nothin but I know bugger all"! |
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Subject: RE: HELP: English expressions From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 06 Jul 07 - 02:59 PM Re TJ- His goose is cooked is most common in the sense that he is a goner (see WYSIWYG above) and needn't have anything to do with being smitten or in love. Knickers were the old time cut-off trousers fastened below the knees (golf knickers) in Amerian usage, but have to do with a gal's underpants in England. All of this has been gone over ad nauseum in previous threads. |
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Subject: RE: HELP: English expressions From: GUEST,Santa Date: 07 Jul 07 - 11:43 AM Unhelpful to Wolfgang, but although Partan may be Scotch for crab, in Orkney it means one that is too small to be worth selling. When I was up there last year I heard a touching song about a young man whose love was unwilling to marry until there were "more than partans in the creel". Sung by Sarah Jane Grieve, but I suspect from her mother Barbara's collection. No idea of age of song or writer. |
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Subject: RE: HELP: English expressions From: open mike Date: 07 Jul 07 - 03:45 PM "dragged her down " leaves me with images of neanderthal or other primitive cave dweller types retrieving a mate by pulling her by the hair, holding a big club in the other hand... "drag her down" may refer to bringing one to a lower level of living implying poverty, or addiction of some sort. |
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Subject: RE: HELP: English expressions From: Peace Date: 07 Jul 07 - 03:51 PM I think the song is called "Partans in His Creel" and it is in the DT. |
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Subject: RE: HELP: English expressions From: Alan Day Date: 08 Jul 07 - 05:08 AM An over heard conversation which included an Italian who came out with the classic phrase "What is'a this a' push'a and der shove'a". Al |
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