DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

[Tizer]

I noticed Maz's phrase elsewhere on OG: `mad as a two-bob watch'.

[Bodger]

From old Yorkshire will, oxgang / bovate, could apply to an area of a a farm ?

[Bodger]

`mad as a two-bob watch'.
Anyone remember Smiths , Ingersol, and Services watches ?, all made in Britain i think

[Cathy]

Heard today that we get our accents before we learn to speak properly.
It makes sense when you think of babies and young toddler s speaking baby-talk, the accent is already there.

[Stanley]

I noted two bob watch as well Tiz. Yes I remember all those watches Bodge, I had an Ingersoll watch for years....
Bodge, 'Oxgang' and Bovate'. They are measures of land area used in Saxon and Medieval times. They varied from region to region and were affected by land quality also. Generally reckoned to be from 20 to 40 acres. A Bovate was based on the amount of land one ox could work in a year, generally reckoned to 1/8 of a Hide which was the amount of land which could support a family. Oxgang was another name for the same area. [Best source for matters like this is 'The Local Historian's Encyclopedia' by John Richardson. It is one of my bibles..... (LINK to a copy on Bookfinder for £3.25)

[Stanley]

Widdle. piddle and tinkle.... Just how many alternative names do we have for micturation?

[Cathy]

I often go weeeeeee...

[Stanley]

Just like the little pig....... all the way home!

[Tizer]

My mum's favourite was "I'm going for a Jimmy Riddle".

[Stanley]

Yes I've heard that. In Oz they talk about 'pointing Percy at the porcelain'. An old one here was 'seeing a man about a dog'.

[Stanley]

I have a story about a man going for a pee... It might have got lost when the old site crashed, forgive me if it's a repetition.
I was on a BBC 'Boot Camp' week in a hotel in Wales. We were brainstorming making short videos. I had a conversation in the bar with a man who had a magnificent Harris Hawk perched on his wrist and he asked me if I would hold it while he went for a pee. I got the welders glove on, the bird was transferred and he told me to hold it close to me as Freya enjoyed human contact. It's huge sharp beak was only a couple of inches from my face and every now and again it would turn its head and have a good look at me. I was with a bunch of snappers and would you believe that nobody took a picture!?

[Tizer]

I'll bet that cartoon is from Private Eye!

[Stanley]

I've forgotten where I found it. It just seemed good enough to harvest....

[Stanley]

"Running a banker" Is this a phrase we use here for a beck or river running in flood or have I picked it up from my Australian father? I know it's common over there.....

[LizG]

It's certainly a phrase we use in Oz.

[Stanley]

I think it was something I picked up from my dad. 'Spate' is the most common word for a banker round here I think.

[Stanley]

Lang may your lumb reek!

[Stanley]

Looking back I picked up a lot of phrases from my father. 'In a worse state than China'. 'Something rotten in the state of Denmark'. 'More than you can poke a stick at'. ' The dirty end of the stick'. I often wonder how universal these are.....

[Stanley]

"Choking a hammer". The term given to holding a hammer to close to the head when striking. Also used in the days of water powered tilt hammers which had limited lift and the bigger the work piece the less the fall of the head on it. Big work pieces were said to "choke the hammer".

[plaques]

The recent killings by the extremist group 'IS' brings to mind the very old verb 'Topcliffizare' . Never seen it in modern dictionaries.

[Tizer]

The first sentence of an article in The Times about the BBC's War & Peace programme called it `a contranews adaptation'. Contranews? What's one of those when it's at home? It sounds like another word for Tripps to add to his list!

[Tripps]

That's very timely. I've spent the last few days listing words and phrases that irritate me. I'm surprised it has grown so quickly. Note 'irritate', not 'annoy' though there are degrees of irritation. Feel free to suggest others

Actor (female)
Assessment
Basically
Behaviours
Challenging
Channels
Child poverty
Cisgendered
Conversations
Curate
Do you know what?
Does my head in
Don't get me wrong
Empowering
End of
Harm reduction
Have a nice rest of the day
I made a mistake
It's really important . . .
I won't lie to you
Judgmental
Learners
Let me be clear. . .
Marginalise
Multi disciplinary team
My bad
Narrative
No mark
Occupational therapist
Oh my god
Raising awareness
Safe space
Second guess
Setting
Silo
So
Take it to the next level
Thank you for having me
Trigger
Vulnerable

[Tizer]

An interesting list Tripps! I guess some of those words have to be in a particular context to irritate you; for example, `trigger' is probably acceptable when talking about a Colt .45 but irritating when used by politicians and economists. One of the things that upsets my day is when trendy phrases are used in a way that is ambiguous. I recall a news reporter saying something like `Bin Laden wasn't on the radar'. He seemed to mean Bin Laden wasn't known in those early days but it could also have meant that a raid directed by radar failed to find him. It's a case of transposing a technical military phrase to everyday life then moving it back again! Another nuisance word is `so' used inappropriately at the beginning of every answer to a question: Q: "Where do babies come from?"....A: "So, you get a man and a woman...". I'll go and have a cup of tea before I get carried away with the list!

(I should have said thanks for making the list, Tripps, it ticks my box and floats my boat!)

[Tripps]

An ex policeman on LBC has just said that the latest Jihadi John was 'above the radar '.
I guess he meant it to be the opposite of 'below the radar' - but it isn't.

My irritation at trigger is in this sense - and this is cutting edge nonsense Trigger warning

Now here's my favourite word of the year, ( so far ) " obnubilate "

I thought it was a made up word at first - but it's real.
It's up there with tergiversate, with which to impress your friends.

Thanks for the kind remarks - I'm glad it butters your muffin.

[LizG]

When my kids were young we used to have a word of the day. The idea was you had to use the word as many times as you could during the day, that way the meaning stuck. (They still remind me about juxtapose.) Obnubilate would have been brilliant. I might send it to them any way and see if they respond. Thanks Tripps.