DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

[Stanley]

Is that right P? I hadn't heard that one. Anything to avoid stating the bald truth in plain language. I have always hated 'letting people go' instead of sacking them. It makes it sound as though they asked to be allowed to leave.

[Whyperion]

Rishi Sunak has changed our language. People are not 'laid off' but are 'furloughed'.

Laid Off used to be without pay
Furlough is With Pay

[Whyperion]

Velcro memory very common on OG!
A new word has appeared.... 'bupofren'. Another consequence of sloppy speech and not bothering to enunciate clearly.

It appears some americans are refering to 'Rona (as if it is a named Hurricane)

[Big Kev]

Rishi Sunak has changed our language. People are not 'laid off' but are 'furloughed'.

Laid Off used to be without pay
Furlough is With Pay

And being able to return once things have settled down. Some of us just have to work from home, I have to make myself look presentable for video conferencing...

[Tripps]

Those of us who remember with some fondness the Phil Silvers show - as Master Sergeant Ernie Bilko will be familiar with the word furlough - meaning leave.

[Cathy]

Big Kev re your video conferences.
You only have to look ‘presentable’ from your waist up.
You can still wear your Mickey Mouse daks and odd socks....

[Stanley]

That was always my usage David.
Kev, put the cannon on the table, that'll distract them.
A bit later...... I heard a report from the US about a war on drugs being shipped by sea from Argentina to US ports. He described the drugs as being 'destinated for Florida. Do these people do this to give their reports more weight?

[Cathy]

Lockdown Lingo
“Coronacoaster”
The ups and downs of your mood during the pandemic. You’re loving lockdown one moment but suddenly feel anxiety the next.
It truly is “an emotional coronacoaster”.

[Stanley]

It's not so much the virus with me Cathy as not smoking and having a pile of tobacco in the sideboard! I don't know what sort of a coaster you'd call that!

[Tizer]

We got drenched in a heavy downpour yesterday. That had me thinking about the word drench and that led me on to wrench and clench. All three are extremes so I wonder if there's something about the `ench' that denotes strong?

[Stanley]

When you dose a cow it was always referred to as 'a Drench'.
See THIS Etymology, like so many archaic words it has a complicated history and many meanings.

[Tripps]

Begging the question.

Nicely put by Anne Ashworth - a very wise woman from Clitheroe.

‘Begging the question’ is a very specific usage. Also known as a circular argument, it involves making a firm conclusion on the basis of an arguable proposition. For example: ‘Why did God make parasitic worms?’ This begs (or avoids) the question of whether God exists. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred the writer actually means to say ‘this raises/leads to the question . . .’ In this case the writer might have said: ‘ . . . making me wonder if they know something we don’t.’
Posted on February 8, 2020

[Stanley]

Which begs the question "How many people know that?"

[Stanley]

A word in a John Clare poem caught my eye; 'clapt'. It was in reference to a badger. Can't find it on the web but it is an archaic dialect word in Eastern England and Clare is referring to the badger's teeth. 'Clapt like a dog' means having similar teeth to a dog's.
Just used an old local word, 'fratching'. Have we done it already? I'll bet you all know what it means!

[Tripps]

I just looked at your 'clapt' . Some doubt I'd say. Perhaps it just means 'clapped' ? I think John Clare came from Cambridgeshire - he gets occasional mentions on the local TV.
See here. Badger - John Clare

PS - just had a Stewards Enquiry and another look. The word is used three times in the poem and I see your reference is the third. Some doubt has crept in, but I think the other two mean 'clapped'

Even later that night - and what about 'clapped eyes on it'. It's a mystery.

**********************************************
Now - I wasn't sure if this should be filed under bread or words.

I just realised that the words Ciabata and Chapatti are very similar in sound. As they say in Private Eye - 'I wonder if they are in any way related'. I think we should be told.

I think that Marco Polo might have been involved long ago.

[Tizer]

We used to call old cars `clapped out'.

I heard a sensible chap on the radio this morning saying we shouldn't be promoting social distancing, it should be described as physical distancing. Using the word social seems to imply you shouldn't socialise when really we should be promoting it but via the internet or at a safe physical distance.

[plaques]

Clapt. looked up some old word usage and got the impression of Fasten, fix, hold etc.Clapt.

[Tripps]

Well done for finding that site - there's a lot more to the word clap than I thought.

[Whyperion]

Internet likes related, the use of "uptick" in a couple of BBC Covid related posts, one for an increase in hospital admissions in the north east and east of england, the other an increase in on-line enquires into entering the NHS Nurse training and employment programms.

[Tripps]

Ian Blackford MP the leader of the Scottish Nationalist party in Westminster, has just used the phrase 'clear as mud' (twice) when he meant clear as day / crystal.

Should I let his ignorance inform my opinion of him going forward? I'm afraid it will. . . .

[Stanley]

Malapropisms are becoming very common in media reporting.

[Cathy]

Ode To The Spell Checker. By Frank Browning.

Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
It’s rare lea ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.

[Stanley]

[Stanley]

I think I must have mentioned this one before but can't be sure. 'Flaysome' is a local word for fearsome and I often use it. Is it common anywhere else?

[Whyperion]

Ode To The Spell Checker. By Frank Browning.

Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
It’s rare lea ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.

Grammerly