|
Post by bixaorellana on Jan 29, 2010 20:27:52 GMT
|
|
|
Post by patricklondon on Jan 30, 2010 9:53:42 GMT
I'm assuming it's a cup for drinks "to go"
|
|
|
Post by patricklondon on Jan 30, 2010 9:55:54 GMT
or (as I meant to add before hitting the wrong key), as we say in England, takeway. In Scotland they say "carry out", hence the apocryphal tale of a newly arrived waiter from the subcontinent explaining to a customer "We have chicken curry, beef curry, prawn curry, but no curry-oot"
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Jan 31, 2010 7:11:58 GMT
That's it, Patrick! It's one of those phrases that gets said as one word, leaving those who never heard it before mystified.
Hmmm. I think in the US both take-away and carry out are used for food, with carry out being more prevalent.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2010 18:00:29 GMT
nincompoop --
Now where the hell did that come from? Probably no relation to ninja, in my opinion.
|
|
|
Post by patricklondon on Feb 12, 2010 20:38:40 GMT
My OED has "nincompoop" as first noted in 1676, etymology "unknown, probably fanciful". There's a vague echo of Latin "nunquam" (=never), so maybe there's some suggestion of someone who's never going to make it in life, or something of the sort.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 13, 2010 6:03:54 GMT
I have been bamboozled then!
|
|
|
Post by lola on Feb 13, 2010 14:59:49 GMT
It is a real lollapalooza, though.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 13, 2010 22:09:36 GMT
I just don't have time for this anymore. I am busy organizing my collection of smithereens.
|
|
|
Post by lola on Feb 14, 2010 19:34:10 GMT
It will throw this thread all cattywumpus if you bail out now, K.
I think I must have gotten "peach" from having read too much PG Wodehouse and Agatha Christie. UK slang: rat on someone, betray, denounce, tell on, inform on. Probably obsolete, but I don't read enough contemporary UK lit to have a clue.
|
|
|
Post by Kimby on Feb 15, 2010 17:53:30 GMT
I think in the US both take-away and carry out are used for food, with carry out being more prevalent. "Take out" is much more common around here than carry out, and NO ONE uses take-away (except kids learning to subtract!)
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Feb 15, 2010 19:08:09 GMT
Yeah -- I think you're right. It is take-out in the US, not take-away.
"Peached on me" reminds me of "he twigged to it", meaning that he discerned what was going on. That's a Britishism, isn't it?
|
|
|
Post by Kimby on Feb 15, 2010 19:36:02 GMT
Does anyone still use "grokked" to mean that they really "got" or understood/appreciated something?
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Feb 15, 2010 19:40:13 GMT
I know someone my age who does. I always want to tell him to stop doing it.
|
|
|
Post by patricklondon on Feb 21, 2010 13:06:15 GMT
"Peach" meaning to inform - presumably it's the root word for impeach, but it isn't current nowadays in the UK. It sounds very old to me (e.g., the character Peachum in the Beggar's Opera). Nowadays, the slang would be "sneak" - for older generation more middle class types - or, for the more demotic, "grass", or, for young devotees of Australian soap operas, "dob him in".
|
|
|
Post by onlymark on Feb 21, 2010 13:44:53 GMT
I'm flabbergasted.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Feb 21, 2010 19:05:03 GMT
And I, dumbfounded.
|
|
|
Post by lola on Feb 22, 2010 17:11:12 GMT
Thanks, Patrick.
Sincerely, Poleaxed.
|
|
|
Post by Kimby on Feb 22, 2010 17:16:08 GMT
thrown for a loop
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 22, 2010 18:50:39 GMT
Okay, time to start looking up some of this stuff. I looked up "smithereens" and was somewhat disappointed by the terse definition.
Etymology: perhaps from Irish smidiríní Date: 1829 : fragments, bits <the house was blown to smithereens by the explosion>
|
|
|
Post by spindrift on Feb 22, 2010 21:44:38 GMT
Yes, we say "smithereens" a lot in Ireland.
|
|
|
Post by patricklondon on Feb 25, 2010 15:40:47 GMT
I think pole-axes actually existed - and I wouldn't like to be on the receiving end of one.
|
|
|
Post by Kimby on Feb 25, 2010 17:29:49 GMT
When I hear "smithereens" I'm reminded of a blacksmith whacking something on his anvil, which might actually result in smithereens...
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 18, 2010 13:55:33 GMT
I read that even though it is completely uncertain, the first part might come from "flabby," meaning that one is so astonished that they have turned to jelly, and the second part might come from "aghast."
|
|
|
Post by onlymark on Jun 18, 2010 15:06:33 GMT
I think pole-axes actually existed - and I wouldn't like to be on the receiving end of one. A poleaxe was the tool used to slaughter animals. As regards flabbergasted, I am nonplussed.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2010 18:27:12 GMT
"Trailblazing."
I just came out with this word on another thread, which makes me realize that "blaze" obviously has some other meaning that has nothing to do with fire.
|
|
|
Post by Kimby on Jul 18, 2010 19:02:24 GMT
Oh, I know, I know! Trail blazers cut a "blaze" with an axe into trees along the route. You should be able to see the next blaze from the last one. A "blaze tree" will usually have a blaze on both sides of it, so that you can be sure it IS a blaze and not an injury or animal gnawings. US National Forest trails tend to be marked with a double blaze, a small square chip above a longer rectangular vertical slash. The trail blazer makes the route, and the trail crew follows, grubbing out a trail from the woods. In areas that get a lot of snow, the blazes should be pretty high on the trunk so you can find the trail in winter, but often aren't.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2010 19:09:49 GMT
Thanks for that.
|
|
|
Post by fumobici on Jul 19, 2010 4:18:51 GMT
...and now we make virtual "blazes" in the woods with our portable GPSs and the term remains the same.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2010 6:43:40 GMT
|
|