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patricklondon
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|  | Re: Expressions you don't understand
« Reply #150 on Sept 15, 2010, 9:07pm » | ![[Quote]](http://images.proboards.com/buttons/quote.gif "[Quote]") |
Quote:| Maybe it was time to buy a new oven. |
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Just ever so slightly. Only now does it occur to me that there might have been a bit of psychological warfare aimed at my father's wallet.
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kimby
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| | Re: Expressions you don't understand
« Reply #151 on Sept 16, 2010, 5:22am » | |
Sept 13, 2010, 2:51pm, bixaorellana wrote:| Shavings? Maybe that word is particular to your family, Kimby. |
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Nope, no one in my family uses that, but I believe it was used in grade school in my home town.
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kerouac2
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| | Re: Expressions you don't understand
« Reply #152 on Dec 6, 2010, 9:24pm » | |
What on earth is "rabble rousing"?
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bixaorellana
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| | Re: Expressions you don't understand
« Reply #153 on Dec 7, 2010, 1:50am » | |
~?~
That one is easy. It's rousing the rabble. Admittedly, the verb rouse and the noun rabble are both somewhat old fashioned words.
rouse (rouz)
v. roused, rous·ing, rous·es
v.tr.
1. To arouse from slumber, apathy, or depression.
2. To excite, as to anger or action; stir up. See Synonyms at provoke.
v.intr.
1. To awaken.
2. To become active.
n.
The act or an instance of arousing
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/rouse
rabble
n
1. a disorderly crowd; mob
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/rabble
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kimby
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| | Re: Expressions you don't understand
« Reply #154 on Dec 22, 2010, 3:57pm » | |
(I think kerouac was just rabble-rousing with his post, bixa. And it worked!  )
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kerouac2
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| | Re: Expressions you don't understand
« Reply #155 on Dec 24, 2010, 8:18am » | |
Is it also possible to rouse the riff-raff?
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kimby
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| | Re: Expressions you don't understand
« Reply #156 on Dec 29, 2010, 5:16pm » | |
"dressing-down" and "upbraiding"
How can two such different terms have similar meanings?
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bixaorellana
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| | Re: Expressions you don't understand
« Reply #157 on Dec 29, 2010, 5:28pm » | |
I think that dressing-down is from a British military practice wherein a disgraced person had his charges read out, then was stripped of all insignia, buttons, etc. that pertained to the military.
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kimby
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| | Re: Expressions you don't understand
« Reply #158 on Dec 29, 2010, 5:33pm » | |
Interesting, since "braid" is a military decoration, too. Do you suppose upbraiding refers to pulling off the braid, similar to dressing down as bixa described?
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onlymark
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| | Re: Expressions you don't understand
« Reply #159 on Dec 29, 2010, 6:35pm » | |
"Thin and worn sails were often treated with oil or wax to renew their effectiveness. This was called "dressing down". An officer or sailor who was reprimanded or scolded received a dressing down." - in other words, told to pull his socks up and do a better job.
"Middle English upbreiden, Old English upbregdan; related to Danish bebreide, to bring forward as a ground for censure" etc.
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kerouac2
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| | Re: Expressions you don't understand
« Reply #160 on Dec 29, 2010, 6:39pm » | |
Are you sure they weren't giving bikini waxes to those sailors, so far from home?
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| | Re: Expressions you don't understand
« Reply #161 on Dec 29, 2010, 6:41pm » | |
They are a possible definition, but I'm sure there are others.
And then you have "dressing to the nines".
That's from...............?
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| | Re: Expressions you don't understand
« Reply #162 on Dec 29, 2010, 6:42pm » | |
Dec 29, 2010, 6:39pm, kerouac2 wrote:| Are you sure they weren't giving bikini waxes to those sailors, so far from home? |
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But did they know what a "Brazilian" was before the country was discovered?
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bixaorellana
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| | Re: Expressions you don't understand
« Reply #163 on Jan 1, 2011, 4:36pm » | |
I don't know what dressing to the nines is either, and don't want it to get lost as a topic.
However, I do want to know what "brand new" is. It's somehow newer than new, but why?
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bixaorellana
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| | Re: Expressions you don't understand
« Reply #164 on Jan 31, 2011, 5:19pm » | |
Where are the South Africans?
I need to know what this expression means, from a S.African news story. onlyMark is not here right now, so I need not worry that I'll be asked, "which expression?"
The Grade 11 pupils, who failed last year, started toyi-toying at 09:00.
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bjd
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| | Re: Expressions you don't understand
« Reply #165 on Jan 31, 2011, 7:57pm » | |
Google is your friend, Bixa.
Toyi-toyi is a Southern African dance originally from Zimbabwe that has long been used in political protests in South Africa
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bixaorellana
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| | Re: Expressions you don't understand
« Reply #166 on Feb 1, 2011, 3:55am » | |
I can google till the cows come home, but if you go back to the first page of this thread, you'll see from the first posts that there is a casual agreement not to look things up unless everyone is stumped. Otherwise, it wouldn't be much of a thread.
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tod2
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| | Re: Expressions you don't understand
« Reply #167 on Feb 1, 2011, 2:21pm » | |
I'm afraid that is not a very good example of toy-toying shown in the video clip. That was more of a moving demonstration march. Real toyi-toyi is a childish-looking dance where the "toyi-toyer" hops from one leg to the other, bending forward at times or waving ones arms above your head. All the time singing or chanting slogans. If woman are toyi-toying they repeatedly break into a shrill shriek using their tonges to break the sound into waves. That's called eulila -something-or-other. All I know its painful to listen to but I guess to the entranced ones it's music to their ears.......
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kerouac2
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| | Re: Expressions you don't understand
« Reply #168 on Feb 1, 2011, 3:33pm » | |
That would be ululation. 
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tod2
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| | Re: Expressions you don't understand
« Reply #169 on Feb 1, 2011, 5:58pm » | |
Thanks Kerouac! Yes, indeed it IS ululation - I'd love to see the reaction if someone did that on the Champs......then again I guess you could tell us some stories about that beautiful wide avenue??
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gertie
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| | Re: Expressions you don't understand
« Reply #170 on Feb 11, 2011, 4:02am » | |
I have a funny story involving words and a visitor from England. A young woman from England was sent to my company with her boss, who was to negotiate some changes in a contract. Although the boss had provided arrangements for himself to fly home immediately following the end of negotiations, for whatever reason a flight a few days later was so much cheaper the young lady was gifted with a few extra days to enjoy her visit to the US, and so it came about a workmate and I invited her to join us for some sightseeing over the weekend. As she had little to do, I invited her to breakfast at my apartment before heading out with the workmate, who was also my neighbor. During the breakfast, an unfortunate accidental spill led to the need for the young lady to change into a dry shirt I was loaning her. As we were heading to my closet to select a shirt for the young lady, she replied to my husband's offer to go see if the coworker was ready to leave with thanks for his offer to go "knock her up" for us. She was quite confused when the statement was met with chuckles. Apparently a common expression for going to knock on someone's door and invite them out in England was to knock them up, but of course our first connection was to the euphemism for pregnant, knocked up. Come to think of it, her use made a lot more sense. Why in the world do we say "knocked up" to mean pregnant?
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patricklondon
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| | Re: Expressions you don't understand
« Reply #171 on Feb 21, 2011, 12:30pm » | |
Quote:| Why in the world do we say "knocked up" to mean pregnant? |
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No idea, but "knocking up" in the UK really refers to the practice, in the early days of industrialisation before ordinary workers could afford alarm clocks, of mill-owners employing someone to go round the village waking their workers by knocking at their windows. If they slept upstairs, this meant brandishing a pole.......?!
"brand new" - somewhere I have a memory that it might originally have been "bran new", that is, straight out of the packaging (from when goods were protected from transit damage by being placed in boxes filled with bran or sawdust (hence also, "bran tubs" - the kind of tombola I just remember from my childhood, where you paid your money, stuck your hand in the bran and fumbled around for a suitably enticing-feeling parcel)
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bixaorellana
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| | Re: Expressions you don't understand
« Reply #172 on Feb 21, 2011, 3:16pm » | |
That's an interesting and logical explanation, Patrick. My brain had been stuck on "band box", as in "he looks as though he just stepped out of a band box". This was causing me more confusion, rather than less.
Bran tubs would be what I'd call a grab bag, correct? So what's a "tombola"?
The question that occurred to me yesterday was why buck naked? Naked is naked. Should females be doe naked?
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patricklondon
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| | Re: Expressions you don't understand
« Reply #173 on Feb 24, 2011, 8:21pm » | |
tombola = a fundraising device. Commonly, you buy so many tickets for given amount and see whether your ticket(s) correspond to a prize - or, as in the bran tub, you paid for so many attempts at finding something hidden in the bran.
"band box" = the kind of circular box that kept the old fashioned sort of detachable collar, or band, particularly the kind of box the laundry would send the washed and starched collars back in (I just remember these from my childhood).
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patricklondon
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| | Re: Expressions you don't understand
« Reply #174 on Feb 24, 2011, 8:23pm » | |
"buck naked" I have no idea, unless it's an odd attempt at euphemising "butt naked". Either is, I imagine, American (the usual English expression is "stark naked", hence "starkers").
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bixaorellana
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| | Re: Expressions you don't understand
« Reply #175 on Feb 25, 2011, 4:09am » | |
Ah, then a tombola is a raffle. Stark naked is said in the US as well, which allows us to maybe figure out "starkers" when exposed to English speech or prose.
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kimby
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| | Re: Expressions you don't understand
« Reply #176 on Mar 1, 2011, 6:49am » | |
If someone was said to be "starkers" I'd think of them as crazy, as in stark raving mad.
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kerouac2
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| | Re: Expressions you don't understand
« Reply #177 on Mar 1, 2011, 5:53pm » | |
The French word for raffle is indeed tombola. Clearly the word is not of French origin, though, or it would have been something like 'tombole' instead.
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patricklondon
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| | Re: Expressions you don't understand
« Reply #178 on Mar 7, 2011, 5:54am » | |
Mar 1, 2011, 6:49am, kimby wrote:| If someone was said to be "starkers" I'd think of them as crazy, as in stark raving mad. |
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"Stark" is just an intensifier, in both cases. The limitation of "starkers" to "naked" is, I admit, a fairly localised English convention. We have lots of other humorous slang words and phrases for lunacy (I can't imagine why): in London, some people say someone's "gone a bit Hornchurch" (if you look at the tube map, it's way out to the east - two stops beyond Barking).
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| | Re: Expressions you don't understand
« Reply #179 on Mar 7, 2011, 6:33am » | |
Feb 1, 2011, 3:33pm, kerouac2 wrote:| That would be ululation. |
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Hear that a lot round here. Last night there was a wedding reception not far from me and it happened most of the evening.
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