DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

[Stanley]

Ralph can be confusing as well. Some social climbers prefer 'rafe'.

[Stanley]

I was digging into bell-ringing yesterday for an article and came across the root of the word 'bell'. It comes from the Anglo Saxon 'bellan', to bawl or bellow. That sounds about right!

[Tripps]

Isn't it weird when you come across a word you have never heard of - then see it again in quite another context the next day. This just happened. I saw the word badger in an antique book about Failsworth, by Sim Schofield. The story was called "How Robin got credit at a badger's shop". and he explains that he means a grocer's shop. Next day I dip into a well known book about a well know town (almost at random), and Chapter 29 is entitled "Badgers Broggers Galls and Jaggers" and badgers are described as being persons licensed to deal in corn. Must be the same word - very spookey.

[Stanley]

David, must have been a good book!
The piece was originally an article for BET in the 'Transport in Barlick' series. I've posted it in Stanley's View if anyone is interested.

[Tizer]

When using metaphor you can have your cake and eat it...

On the radio this morning a man was talking about the re-starting of the Corus steelworks. He said he was brought up in a steel town at a time when the works were closing and: "It was painted red with iron oxide; it was one of the country's blackspots".

[catgate]

When using metaphor you can have your cake and eat it...

On the radio this morning a man was talking about the re-starting of the Corus steelworks. He said he was brought up in a steel town at a time when the works were closing and: "It was painted red with iron oxide; it was one of the country's blackspots".

Not a rosy pivture.

[Stanley]

That was true about all the areas that hosted smokestack industry. If it wasn't iron oxide it was pollution from the chimneys. It wasn't visible from the SE so that was all right.....

[Belle]

My daughter looked at me as though deranged the other day when I used one of my mother's favourites: "I should coco!" What's all that about?

[Stanley]

Not sure Belle but fairly modern I think. A comedian's catch phrase?

[Tripps]

Sounds like Frankie Howard to me. Just a simple word 'cocoa' which if delivered with the right amount of innuendo could mean anything.

[Belle]

According to the "urban dictionary" it's rhyming slang for "I should say so"! (that bit I had worked out!) in use from the 1930's and often used sarcastically to mean the opposite.

[Belle]

Just reading Whypers reply on the minor glitches topic, about how this site differs from others and the term "talking shop" came to mind..I don't think it was always used positively but in the positive sense this site is a "talking shop" ..and the term is regional I think rather than general but I may be wrong?

[Stanley]

Bumped up

[Belle]

Not sure why you are replying bumped up to my posts Stanley..is it an Australian thing?

[Stanley]

Calm down Dear! I was trying to help members by bringing current posts back to the top of the list after my re-posts yesterday. I haven't caught them all, if any are still missing have a look in the last two pages of 'Active Topics'.
As for 'talking shop', I don't think the serious research in the genealogy and history topics comes under that heading.

[Stanley]

A nasty one for you, why 'snot'? Where does that one come from?

[Tripps]

Sorry - don't know.
I've come across "badgers shop" again in a dialect dictionary. Anyone got any idea where this word derives? Is it related to the animal or perhaps they all wore a badge?
Here's thelink to a remarkable site. [url]http:/ ... ms_(6).htm

Hope that works - bit of a struggle.

[PanBiker]

Not quite Dave, not sure what you have done wrong, don't have my glasses on so cant see the URL string., only the big bits'
The one below works though:

Edwin Waugh

[elise]

Badger shop -A local or itinerant dealer in dairy produce, eggs, corn, meal and malt, and later in general produce

Paupers were also called Badgers for they had to wear a badge in the form of a letter P and were encouraged to go begging to eke out their parish relief.

[Stanley]

Snot. Webster: 1350-1400, ME 'snotte'. Middle Danish 'snotte'. OE 'gesnot' and Danish 'snot'.Looks like a very ancient root.

[Tripps]

Thanks for that Elise - concise and authoritative as ever. Still not sure about the grocer though. Did he wear a badge, or perhaps his customers did, but if they were paupers on relief, they wouldn't be using the shop. I'm puzzled.

[Tizer]

Builders also use the words `mortar snot' to refer to the blobs of mortar that drop off into the wall cavity when they are laying bricks. These are responsible for a lot of `bridging' problems in house walls such as water passing from the outer leaf of the cavity wall to the inner leaf and causing damp on your wallpaper. Also, for the passage of conducted heat in the other direction and thus the cooling of your house. They also interfere with the correct positioning of insulation boards in cavity walls, resulting in reduced insulating effect. If builders had avoided mortar snots we would have had warmer new houses over the last 20 years.

[Bodger]

We may have had this in the old forum, not sure of the spelling, whittle, not carving wood, but to whittle on, ie, " think about" or nag

[Stanley]

Bodge, are you thinking of 'witter'?
Going back to snot. Brickies call the tear-drops of grout that mark the face of new brickwork 'snots' and use de-snotting compounds (often based on hydrofluoric acid) to clean them off. This acid even attacks glass and has to be stored in vulcanised rubber containers.

[Stanley]

"My legs have been giving me gip" Not sure of the spelling but where does 'gip' meaning pain come from?