Help: Thirty Foot Trailer - Quines

Subject: Thirty Foot Trailer - Quines
From: GUEST,Vince
Date: 30 Mar 02 - 11:54 AM

In the lyrics i have to Ewan MacColl's 'Thirty Foot Trailer', a line in the last verse reads 'They'll soon hae machines and those trevelling quines'. Anyone know what quines are or is that romany for queens?

Subject: RE: Help: Thirty Foot Trailer - Quines
From: Mac Tattie
Date: 30 Mar 02 - 12:23 PM

No, arround Aberdeen are girls are called quines and boys are called loons. cheers.

Subject: RE: Help: Thirty Foot Trailer - Quines
From: Mac Tattie
Date: 30 Mar 02 - 12:33 PM

Perhaps I should try again, one of my typing fingers is sore. Arround Aberdeen Girls are called quines and boys are called loons. So the gipsy quines are gipsy girls. cheers

Subject: RE: Help: Thirty Foot Trailer - Quines
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 30 Mar 02 - 12:37 PM

I always loved the line about swapping families in formation. Sounded like a Busby Berkeley routine....

Subject: RE: Help: Thirty Foot Trailer - Quines
From: Jon Bartlett
Date: 30 Mar 02 - 03:20 PM

Surely it's a synchronized swimming move?

Subject: RE: Help: Thirty Foot Trailer - Quines
From: Jock Morris
Date: 30 Mar 02 - 04:24 PM

Herga Kitty, I hope you're joking; the line is "Hear the news and swap family information".

Seem to remember reading somewhere that the 'travelling queens' were steam traction engines used to power the farm machinery.

Scott

Subject: RE: Help: Thirty Foot Trailer - Quines
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 31 Mar 02 - 07:19 PM

It seems fairly obvious from the lyrics I have that the term refers to travelling women. What I'm not sure about is, how is 'quines' pronounced? Like 'queens' or to rhyme with 'wines'?

Subject: RE: Help: Thirty Foot Trailer - Quines
From:
Date: 31 Mar 02 - 09:14 PM

Queen Marys, 'queens', in the fifties, were the latest fashion in road transport. Articulated trucks.

Jack

Subject: RE: Help: Thirty Foot Trailer - Quines
From: nutty
Date: 01 Apr 02 - 03:45 AM

McColl sings "Queens" , The "ee" rhyming with bee
< Which makes sense when taken in the context of the last two lines of the verse

For they'll soon have machines and those travelling queens
And their menfolk had better be shiftin

Subject: RE: Help: Thirty Foot Trailer - Quines
From: GUEST,Vince
Date: 01 Apr 02 - 12:32 PM

Hmmm, thnks all for your interesting replies on 'Quines'. I think i'll go along with you Mac Tattie, Nutty, & Susanne i.e quines meaning women. The Watersons in their version pronounce the word 'quines' as to ryme with wines so i suppose it can be either queens or quines. Errr, i think 'Here the news and swap family information' comes from the song 'The Travelling People' Cheers!

Subject: RE: Help: Thirty Foot Trailer - Quines
From:
Date: 01 Apr 02 - 06:25 PM

Regardless of what the Watersons sing it cannot be 'either queens or quines'

A quine is not a 'woman', but a young girl and a queen in those days, as Eric Bogle has observed, was an old tart in a tiara

Jack

Subject: RE: Help: Thirty Foot Trailer - Quines
From: GUEST,Vince
Date: 03 Apr 02 - 04:43 PM

Ok, young girl it is! ta

Subject: RE: Help: Thirty Foot Trailer - Quines
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 03 Apr 02 - 11:44 PM

G'day jacko@nz,

Interestingly, whatever the different words mean today, quean (or quine in the north) and queen are all the same word ... cognate with the Old English: cwene = woman (and trouble, in any of those forms!).

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Help: Thirty Foot Trailer - Quines
From: GUEST,Lavengro
Date: 25 Feb 13 - 10:04 AM

Moral dilemma here. Do I add to a 10 year old thread?

Speaking as a Romani man. Queens- is beyond a shadow of doubt refering to slightly older, married Gypsy or Travelling women. It is used by both ethnicities and is not a Romani word. A young girl is called (in Romani)a rackli, not a queen.

Funny, I have been asked what "cant" is before, never queen.

Hope this helps rather than hinders. Assuming anyone is still interested :)

Subject: RE: Help: Thirty Foot Trailer - Quines
From: MartinRyan
Date: 25 Feb 13 - 11:18 AM

Thanks, GUESTLavengro. Round here, someone is always still interested!

Regards

Subject: RE: Help: Thirty Foot Trailer - Quines
From: Young Buchan
Date: 25 Feb 13 - 01:01 PM

"A quine is not a 'woman', but a young girl and a queen in those days, as Eric Bogle has observed, was an old tart in a tiara"

Jack and Eric may have been brave enough to describe Queen Caroline Hughes as an old tart in a tiara; but I wouldn't have been. To many of us she was, par excellence, one of the Travelling Queens.