DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

[Tizer]

Mrs Tiz's WI group regularly collects food for those who are going short.

[Tripps]

I heard this word used yesterday in an interview by a member of Extinction Rebellion at their demonstration yesterday in Cambridge where they poured tomato ketchup over each other and tried to keep a straight (can we still use that word?) face and not laugh. Nepocide

Too much thinking makes my head hurt these days, but I don't quite get it - not the nepo bit anyway.

By the way - the latest version of the description of non standard people seems to be
LGBTQIA+ I've heard it used twice in the last few weeks. I guess the + catches anyone who is offended by being left out. The Q word, it seems is no longer hate speech, but now perfectly acceptable.

It's hard to keep up isn't it - and who decides?

[Stanley]

I've noted the acceptance of 'queer' also.
Heard a reporter on R4 say "Tactic approval" when of course he meant 'tacit'. Malapropisms like that leap out at me, I must really be a pedant!

[Tizer]

Collins says nepotism comes from Italian nepos for nephew and the pope granting special favours so I suppose the ERs use it to mean destroying the favours to the younger generation.

[Tripps]

destroying the favours to the younger generation.

Well - that helps thanks, but I still think they are a bunch of idiots.

[Tizer]

I've only caught up as far as LGBT and now find that last week the Ts fell out with the LGBs. Honestly. (It's in the papers so it must be true.)

[Stanley]

I ignore all this sort of stuff on the grounds that I am too old to understand it. I've spent my life getting on with everyone as well as I can, pity more people don't do the same. Too much time on their hands, bring back the 60 hour week.....
Just made a gradely pot of coffee.....

[Tizer]

Whoops, I got it the wrong way around. It's the LGBs who've fallen out with the Ts. They say the Ts are confusing children. That's not surprising, the whole business confuses me!

[Whyperion]

Whoops, I got it the wrong way around. It's the LGBs who've fallen out with the Ts. They say the Ts are confusing children. That's not surprising, the whole business confuses me!

Are they deliberately or accidentally confusing.
I always thought the undelying science- if any - for Ts compared to the other groups ( which are to some extent more of a lifestyle choice rather than sometimes the result of medical mis-diagnosis or the conflict of hormones over other sex determinants ) meant that they were mis-grouped , mainly for the idea of some kind of political correctness rather than genuine mental well-being and proper issues of anti-discrimination.

[Stanley]

I used the word 'cooloo' this morning but no mention of it on the web I can find. Army slang and it meant all of it or the lot, the full Monty. Probably a corruption brought in from the Indian Army.
'Dribs and drabs' (1800-1900) Drib probably from drib “to fall in small drops”; DRIBBLE. Drabs probably from dribs as a repetition.

[Stanley]

See THIS Guardian report of Leeds University's new survey of dialect.
Have you ever wondered why we talk about our 'eye teeth'? I found out this morning that it's because they are below your eyes! Obvious really but it had never struck me.

[Tizer]

I saw a BBC news report titled `General election 2019: Tory peer accuses Hancock of 'whitesplaining''. The report didn't explain what whitesplaining was so I looked it up...
`The act of a caucasian person explaining to audiences of color the true nature of racism; a caucasian person explaining sociopolitical events and/or history to audiences of color as though they are ignorant children; a caucasian person explaining to audiences of color that what they think will benefit themselves and their families and communities will in fact harm them, and vice versa.' Urban Dictionary

[Stanley]

All too common and I have come across a parallel I think. It's immensely intelligent scholars who have read all the books explaining technical matters and getting it entirely wrong. Very prevalent in Industrial Archaeology.
Example, I once heard a complicated explanation of a room lined with glazed brick at Masson Mill delivered by an 'expert' from English Heritage. I took him on one side later and told him I thought he was wrong, it was a room for bleaching wet cloth using burning sulphur in pots, a very early primitive temporary bleaching process. Robert heard this and later told me that in the final report they gave my explanation saying it was the result of 'extensive research'. No sweat, at least they got it right! I've come across this time and time again, one of my favourites is accounts of how bad people smelt in the days before daily showers. Funny thing is that I have never noticed it!

[Tizer]

I often encounter similar problems. I've recently seen the food & nutrition correspondent of a major newspaper write that palm oil is now in food products because it's used to replace butter. Rubbish. It's there to replace trans fats, which in turn were there to replace high melting point animal fats when, in the past, we freaked out over `dangerous saturated fats'.

[Stanley]

I wonder how many lives have been ruined by the concerted campaign to wean us off butter and animal fats? Plus the effects on the environment of clearing land for Palm Oil production.
My eye was caught by the use of 'dreich', a Scottish word for miserable wet weather. It certainly applied in Barlick yesterday.

[Stanley]

I used the word doolally yesterday and realise that many may not have heard it.
"Doolally comes from British army slang, originating when Deolali was a British army transit camp in India. Doolally tap meant being mad, crazy or literally, suffering from camp fever. ... The slang word 'doolally' or 'doolali' is used to describe someone who is 'out of one's mind' or 'crazy'."

[Tizer]

An article by the BBC news web site based on the Victoria Derbyshire programme has the following confusion of words:
`Experts say Western waste is one part of the problem...they sight a lack of infrastructure and funding for waste collection...' LINK

[Tripps]

Whilst browsing a list of candidates in the coming election - like you do - I came across one of the proposers who lived at Toadpool Farm. I wonder if that relates to the word tadpole - or is it actually the other way round?

[Stanley]

Or a dyslexic farmer?

[plaques]

• TOAD-POOL † n. a mass of corrupt poisonous matter ...1607
Words.

[Tripps]

That's a good site - more info on toads than I would have considered necessary.

I was checking the declared candidates for the Bolsover constituency when I came across the name, in the address of one of the proposers.

I hadn't googled when I mentioned the name, but it now occurs to me that didn't the Coop start in Rochdale in Toad Lane?

I think it was a corruption of The old Lane?

[Stanley]

Th'old Lane. Sounds feasible David. Good site, I like the bookworm with the umbrella that follows you. Reminds me of the bloke on the motor bike that used to annoy some of us in Microsoft Word.
Have you noticed what seems to be a current fashion to use the pronunciation of whatever the noun is when saying things like Nation-ally?

[Tripps]

The word 'relatable' seems to be word of the week.I heard it a few days ago when Boris was accused of not being so, (he rightly said the question was ridiculous). and now twice today on Sky News. I even heard relatability.

It was used to mean able to relate to other people - pretty obvious really - but I've spent all my life without coming across or using it.

[Stanley]

You're right David and I have noticed that it is often used when the correct word is comparable. Compare and relate are different.

[Stanley]

HERE'S some sad news, a BBC report that the founder and chairman of the Apostrophe Protection Society has stated that it is closing down. The 96-year-old said: "We have done our best but the ignorance and laziness present in modern times have won."
I'm sorry to hear that but can assure him that as long as I am around there will be at least one critic!