DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

[Stanley]

It's often said that English is a difficult language to learn... I was thinking this morning about all the different meanings that can be attributed to the word 'fair'. Our critics could be right!

[Big Kev]

I think this fits in here. Elon Musk describing the SpaceX rocket, that exploded minutes after lift off today, as a rapid unscheduled disassembly. Does he get paid by the word?

[Tripps]

I mentioned it elsewhere. Memorable phrase indeed.

I really thought they were being ironic at first, but appears that it is the official term that they use.

Seems that the launch was great success since it got off the launch pad, which was all they were testing.

I can't wait for Elon Airways to compete with Ryanair.

Prediction - no one from Earth will ever go to Mars.

[Stanley]

I think you're right David. One of the standard phrases they use.... better than it blew up when the the first stage was used up....

[Tizer]

Prediction - no one from Earth will ever go to Mars.

I hope you are right but I'm not confident of it. There are people daft enough and rich enough to do it. I hope they have enough setbacks trying to do so that they give up and decide to spend their time and money improving the world that we already live on and have invested so much in already. Better to find a way to stop humans fighting each other and to make them appreciate the planet they've inherited.

[Stanley]

I doubt if that will happen Peter. More a case of we've messed up this hole, let's go and find another to mess up.....

[Tripps]

Indulge me here. . .

Is it just me - or can everyone else understand what young people are saying now?

I watched a pre Coronation spoof by Harry Enfield last week, where he mocked Beatrice and Eugenie's strangled speech. I found them almost unintelligible. I've since noticed that real people are speaking like that. I had the same problem for instance, on the First Dates programme, and its Irish equivalent, where I couldn't decide if they were speaking English or Gaelic. The current trend seems to be to speak without actually unclenching your teeth.

I've mentioned before Aunty Josie's way of talking, including the phrase "Wicks (Wigs) on the Green" which I discussed a long time ago.
The proceedings yesterday reminded me of another frequent expression of hers "S'elp me clogs" .

Never gave it a thought at the time - but after King Charles' several "So help me God's" yesterday - I realise it's the Lancashire equivalent.

[Stanley]

You are not alone David, I have the same problem. Mainly I think because they speak so quickly, eliding words to aid this and of course it isn't helped by the deterioration in my hearing with age. (Although I have absolutely no problem with the shipping forecast.) It's not just the young, certain radio presenters and many politicians do the same, a sort of verbal shorthand.
In my youth we enjoyed comic monologues by a man with the stage name of Gillie Potter who often started his talks with "Good evening, this is Gillie Potter speaking to you in King's English from Hogsnorton".

Perhaps we need to revive the genre.....

[Tizer]

Although I have absolutely no problem with the shipping forecast.

Me too - although there is one presenter of the forecast who confused me by ending every line with `god' until I realised it was his pronunciation of `good'.

On TV we are switching on captions (subtitles) more frequently now but they are often too slow and don't synch correctly with the TV image (HIGNFY is an example). They're also prone to silly, sometimes amusing, errors. This Word of Mouth episode on subtitles is amusing: LINK

[Tripps]

Perhaps we need to revive the genre...

Well- you've made my morning with that. Wonderful. I'd vaguely heard of him but never heard any of his work until now.

Reminds me that one of the gang when I was young was called Gilmartin, and his nickname was 'Potter'.

[Stanley]

Gillie Potter. He had a regular programme on the BBC in those days David.
I used one of my favourite words yesterday ; 'knurl'. I looked it up.....
knurl (n.) "hard excrescence," c. 1600, probably a diminutive of Middle English knor "knot" (c. 1400), related to gnarled, from Proto-Germanic *knur- (source also of German knorren "a knotty excrescence," Dutch knor "knob," Swedish dialectal knurr "hard swelling"). Related: Knurly.
Entries linking to knurl
gnarled (adj.)
c. 1600, probably a variant of knurled, from Middle English knar "knob, knot in wood, protruding mass on a tree" (late 14c.), earlier "a crag, rugged rock or stone" (early 13c.), from a general group of Germanic words that includes English knob, knock, knuckle, knoll, knurl. Gnarl (v.) "make knotty," gnarl (n.) "a knotty growth on wood," and gnarly (adj.) all seem to owe their existence in modern English to Shakespeare's use of gnarled in 1603:
I feel better now I know that......

[plaques]

What about 'Knurr and Spell. I've seen it being played locally usually with a lot of of side betting. Thee are quite a number of YouTube videos some with our local 'World Champion'

[Stanley]

Well Ken, Knurr as a hard swelling would account for that and spell of course is a dialect word for the stick. The best source of hard wood for the knurr would be the burrs that form on the roots which are hard swellings.

[Stanley]

Ophidiophobia. I tripped over this word today. The first time we have met.

[Tripps]

"About a third of adult humans are ophidiophobic, making this one of the most commonly reported phobias."

Sounds like common sense to me. Better be safe than sorry.

[Stanley]

Time for one of my snake stories I thing. Have a look at this.....



I was on a beach in Western Australia when I heard someone shout "Red Bellied black coming through". no idea what this was about and then I saw this beautiful creature coming towards me. It passed about 2 feet from my feet and I took a picture. A man came up to me and said "Well done Mate! That was the best thing to do." I told him I had no idea what he was on about as I knew nothing about snakes. Turned out this one is almost always fatal if it bites. We were about an hour away from the nearest hospital.

[Tizer]

We watched a TV programme about the Welsh coast path last night presented by a Welsh `weatherman'. He talked with a local woman who has been recording adder sightings and behaviour for years. They showed a video she took of a pair of `courting' adders - they move along curled around each other but in this case she was in the way. She stayed put and they passed over her feet and on into the undergrowth. She explained how an adder bite is less dangerous than most people think. More info here: Wildlife Trust

[Stanley]

That may well be true but I wouldn't take the chance if that happened to me.

[Stanley]

I tripped over the word 'trellis' yesterday and it intrigued me so I looked it up.
trellis (n.) late 14c., "lattice, grating," from Old French trelis, trellis "trellis, fence," originally "sackcloth," from Vulgar Latin *trilicius, from Latin trilicis, genitive of trilix "having three threads, triple-twilled," from tri- (see tri-) + licium "thread,"
That makes sense because the classic trellis fencing is diagonally crossed thin laths and so it does look like a weave and a twill is a diagonal pattern.
Very satisfying.....

[Tripps]

Not forgetting of course Mrs Trellis of North Wales of blessed memory.

- and of course Peter Simple's

Dr Spacely-Trellis — progressive Bishop of Bevindon in the Stretchford Conurbation, where his domestic chaplain is the mischief-making Rev. Peter Nordwestdeutscher (a parody of Anglican peace activist Paul Oestreicher). He is almost always referred to as 'the go-ahead Bishop of Bevindon'.-


PS Anticipated and strongly resembles David Jenkins, Richard Harries, Rowan Williams and many other Anglican clerics.

I'd forgotten Jenkins who described the resurrection as 'a conjuring trick with bones'. Probably near to the truth. . . .

[Stanley]

Ahhhh... Mrs Trellis. Happy days, RIP Humph.

[Stanley]

Do people still use the word 'snap' to describe a photograph?

[Cathy]

I don’t use the word snap , I think ‘pic’ has taken over.
( I automatically thought of the card game Snap)

[Stanley]

I think that would be a common reaction Cathy, only oldies like me remember 'snap'.

[Tripps]

Aunty Josie used 'snap' to mean a packed lunch.