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Post by patricklondon on Sept 15, 2010 21:07:19 GMT
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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Post by Kimby on Sept 16, 2010 5:22:56 GMT
Shavings? Maybe that word is particular to your family, Kimby. 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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Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2010 21:24:37 GMT
What on earth is "rabble rousing"?
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 7, 2010 1:50:52 GMT
~?~ 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 www.thefreedictionary.com/rouserabblen 1. a disorderly crowd; mob www.thefreedictionary.com/rabble
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Post by Kimby on Dec 22, 2010 15:57:47 GMT
(I think kerouac was just rabble-rousing with his post, bixa. And it worked! )
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Post by Deleted on Dec 24, 2010 8:18:49 GMT
Is it also possible to rouse the riff-raff?
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Post by Kimby on Dec 29, 2010 17:16:37 GMT
"dressing-down" and "upbraiding"
How can two such different terms have similar meanings?
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 29, 2010 17:28:50 GMT
;D
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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Post by Kimby on Dec 29, 2010 17:33:49 GMT
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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Post by onlymark on Dec 29, 2010 18:35:58 GMT
"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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Post by Deleted on Dec 29, 2010 18:39:23 GMT
Are you sure they weren't giving bikini waxes to those sailors, so far from home?
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Post by onlymark on Dec 29, 2010 18:41:49 GMT
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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Post by onlymark on Dec 29, 2010 18:42:52 GMT
Are you sure they weren't giving bikini waxes to those sailors, so far from home? But did they know what a "Brazilian" was before the country was discovered?
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 1, 2011 16:36:42 GMT
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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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 31, 2011 17:19:12 GMT
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?" ;D
The Grade 11 pupils, who failed last year, started toyi-toying at 09:00.
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Post by bjd on Jan 31, 2011 19:57:57 GMT
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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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 1, 2011 3:55:50 GMT
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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Post by tod2 on Feb 1, 2011 14:21:41 GMT
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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Post by Deleted on Feb 1, 2011 15:33:41 GMT
That would be ululation.
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Post by tod2 on Feb 1, 2011 17:58:15 GMT
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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Post by gertie on Feb 11, 2011 4:02:32 GMT
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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Post by patricklondon on Feb 21, 2011 12:30:51 GMT
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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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 21, 2011 15:16:40 GMT
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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Post by patricklondon on Feb 24, 2011 20:21:19 GMT
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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Post by patricklondon on Feb 24, 2011 20:23:16 GMT
"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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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 25, 2011 4:09:28 GMT
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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Post by Kimby on Mar 1, 2011 6:49:57 GMT
If someone was said to be "starkers" I'd think of them as crazy, as in stark raving mad.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2011 17:53:49 GMT
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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Post by patricklondon on Mar 7, 2011 5:54:03 GMT
If someone was said to be "starkers" I'd think of them as crazy, as in stark raving mad. "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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Post by onlymark on Mar 7, 2011 6:33:08 GMT
That would be ululation. 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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