DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

[Stanley]

We had educated politicians then... At the same time we had Montagu Collet Norman as Governor of the Bank of England (LINK) who was a very strange character. Read the Wiki articles for some murky dealings. He used the simplistic argument that you couldn't take any more umbrellas and coats out of a cloakroom than you had put in to justify sound money. He used to vanish on long continental holidays under an assumed name as well....
I have a lot of time for the ILP. During the Depression the ILP mayor of Nelson (Little Moscow as the Tories described it) was censured for running Municipal Soup Kitchens for the unemployed. He pointed out that he was using the Mayor's Hospitality budget and private contributions so it was perfectly legal. Off piste I know but we need to remember these things......

[Tizer]

I like the `Grammar Lesson', Ian - a lesson in ethics too! I also noted the words `Our selves' and thought how we would now write `Ourselves' (i.e. as one word). This chimed with something I've just noticed. I bought a new, `top of the range' Collins dictionary a few weeks ago. I was looking up a word beginning with O this morning and noticed page after page devoted to words beginning with `out' and the the same thing again with `over'. My old Collins also has many words of that type but only a fraction of the number in the new Collins. Then I realised that many of the words in the new version are ones that I would write as two words or at least with a hyphen after the `out' or the `over'. Collins have forced themselves into making the dictionary many pages longer by treating them as single words.

[Stanley]

I have heard that ploy used in speech Tiz and it has revealed to me the original meaning. Think of words beginning with 'dis' and it can be instructive.

[Tizer]

I another topic I mentioned the word `felloes' while relating something from the Fortey book. He makes me keep the dictionary alongside while reading it! Another word that sent me to the dictionary was `feofee'.

[Stanley]

There are some lovely words out there with specific meanings. many are sloppy these days and tend to use catch-all words because they have no clear understanding of what they are discussing. 'felloe' is a good example, quite specific.
In steam engines this morning Newton refers to a small engine 'conking out', we all know what it means but where did that one come from......

[Stanley]

I used the Dictionary of Slang that David sent me and looked up conking out. Lots of usages for conk from nose to straightening kinky hair but the one that seems to fit is the use of conk as meaning to hit or injure, related to the nose perhaps? So conking out in machinery is failure due to damage or injury.....
Pedant's Corner. I heard an experienced reporter on BBC yesterday use 'mute point' when he meant 'moot point'.

[Tizer]

We still hear the occasional breakfast instead of brexit!

[Stanley]

Pedants corner again. I heard a reporter on World service describing the destruction of illegal Cocaine crops by aerial spraying refer to pesticides. It should have been herbicides!

[Cathy]

Mind your P's and Q's.
Goes back to the old pub days when if a drinker was misbehaving, the landlord would yell out 'Mind your Pints and Quarts'. Is this true?

[Stanley]

I looked it up on Wiki Cathy and here's what they say. LINK. Your explanation is mentioned but so are others. The consensus seems to favour writing P and Q in your copybook.

[Cathy]

Thinking about it I seem to remember it being used by adults to children who were being rude/too cheeky.

[Stanley]

I think the warning covered almost everything Cathy. I've heard it used about behaviour as well.

[Thomo]

At one time I worked for a Man from "Bewton" aka Bolton. Two words that were often used in relation to sensations in the mouth were "Klempt" and "Clarty". Another word that was often used when I was younger was "gallivanting. Sometimes words or phrases are used as an alternative to the original. My Son has had a lifelong hatred of Brussels Sprouts and refers to them as "The Devils Testicles!"

[Cathy]

Gallivanting can also be 'gadding'.

[Tizer]

`Out gallivanting' was, and still is, heard frequently in our family - mostly from me! (But not about me, you understand! )

[Stanley]

Little white hens laying away.......

[Tripps]

Stanley used the word 'tranny' on the Radio thread. I doubt that anyone under 30 would associate it with 'transistor radio' .

[PanBiker]

I used it as well in my previous post, I know what you mean, just like gay has been hijacked in a similar vein.

[Stanley]

Never even thought of that David! To the pure, all things are pure!

[Thomo]

Purity would be very hard to define if applied to all living things. In this context I believe that it belongs to my other topic, Growing Older. Many things have taken on new meanings, Ian's "Gay" being a prime example. It used to be used as an expression of happiness, contentment, and a carefree attitude towards ones lifestyle, not batting for the other team! Nowadays, we are told all too often, how we should respond to this ever changing World and its Society, and its also ever changing terminology. To many of us "Tranny" was an abbreviation for a transistor radio, or more recently a Ford Van, now it also has many differing connotations, Transsexual, Transgender, Transvestite, and Shemale or Ladyboy, being the most common. Anther fair example of what we are told we should not do is refer to people of anther race by the first part of their original tribal orientations. "Stan" in respect of its basic definitions means, means place of origin. Hindustan, was where the Hindus lived. Afghanistan was where the Afghans lived. No one minds at all if we refer to these people as Hindus, or Afghans, yet there is another similar place where in this country the removal of "Stan" is now viewed as a racist remark. All too frequently we who's origins are of this Country, and indeed many others, can if we are not careful have "phobic" attached to how we think and behave.

[Stanley]

A word tweaked me this morning, why 'pad'lock?

[plaques]

To restrain livestock in their paddock.

'Mulct' never hear this word being used nowadays.

[chinatyke]

To restrain livestock in their paddock.

Apparently 'pad' was another word for gate in O.E.

'Mulct' never hear this word being used nowadays.

As in "Ah've just mulct t'cows" ??

[Tripps]

Whilst stopped in traffic, I looked right and saw a plaque on a building. Being newly introduced to the hobby of 'plaque watching' - which I fully approve of - I saw that it read
'GARD TA FOY'. I guessed it might be Norman French similar to the words used when the Queen gives Royal Assent to a Bill - La Reyne le veult. The Queen wishes it.

A few moments on google shows it is indeed, and is a motto of Magdalen College, that means 'keep your faith'

It is said that some student wags say it means ' watch your liver' (cf. fois gras)

[Stanley]

'Virement' comes from the same source David......