DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

[Tizer]

And can you be `ebriated'? After all, something can be inedible or edible.

[Tripps]

I commented in October about the word habitable, and the fact that in some legal documents 'inhabitable' meant not habitable, which is exactly the opposite of its usual current everyday meaning. We would now say uninhabitable.
Funny things words

[Stanley]

That's the fascination of them for me David. "He was a man without couth" sounds quite good to me......

[Bodger]

No English dictionary has been able to adequately explain the difference between these two words.

In a recently held linguistic competition held in London and attended by supposedly the best in the world, Samsundar Balgobin, a Guyanese man, was the clear winner with a standing ovation which lasted over 5 minutes.



The final question was:
How do you explain the difference between COMPLETE and FINISHED in a way that is easy to understand.

Some people say there is NO difference between COMPLETE and FINISHED.

Here is his astute answer…




When you marry the right woman, you are COMPLETE.
When you marry the wrong woman, you are FINISHED,
and when the right one catches you with the wrong one, you are COMPLETELY FINISHED!!

He won a trip to travel the world in style and a case of 25 year old rum.

[Tizer]

Nice one Bodger!

[Cathy]

I was thinking of slang terms for Money today - dough, grand, brass, bread etc. Came across these, Big Ben for £10, Bottle for £2 (?), and Monkey for £500 (from southern England).
I wonder if that is where 'I don't give a Monkeys' comes from?

[Stanley]

CaTHY. 'i DON'T GIVE A MONKEY' (bugger caps lock!) is a short version of 'I don't give a monkey's f***' which I suppose is even more pejorative than a human one which is the common version. There is also the 'flying' version which is on the same lines.

[Tripps]

I was thinking of slang terms for Money today - dough, grand, brass, bread etc. Came across these, Big Ben for £10, Bottle for £2 (?), and Monkey for £500 (from southern England).
I wonder if that is where 'I don't give a Monkeys' comes from?

mainly bookmaker / market trader slang.

Bottle = two (Don't know why

Carpet = three. (Said to be because a sentence of three years + entitled one to a carpet in ones cell)
Monkey = 500 - said to be because a 500 Rupee note had a picture of a monkey on it.

I've also hear 'cock and hen' - rhyming slang for ten

Pony = 25 (Don't know why).

All terms to keep business private from the punter.

[Bruff]

‘Pony’ for £25.

Pony to the slaughter – quarter. That’s one explanation. Another you might come across – a pony was on the 25 rupee note – has been dismissed as an urban myth as apparently the 25 rupee note has never had a pony on it.

The term ‘tanner’ for a sixpence is said to come from Indian currency – 8 annas being essentially the same proportion to something as the sixpence [say 8 annas quickly].

Richard Broughton

[Cathy]

That's interesting Tripps, I think cockney rhyming slang has a lot to do with it all as well. A secret language almost.

[Tripps]

‘Pony’ for £25.

Pony to the slaughter – quarter. That’s one explanation. Another you might come across – a pony was on the 25 rupee note – has been dismissed as an urban myth as apparently the 25 rupee note has never had a pony on it.

The term ‘tanner’ for a sixpence is said to come from Indian currency – 8 annas being essentially the same proportion to something as the sixpence [say 8 annas quickly].

Richard Broughton

Take care with 'pony' . There is also the rhyming slang version 'pony and trap' which is altogether different .

I've done 5 minutes intensive research on google, and nowhere can I find evidence that a 25 Rupee note ever existed. I've also not been able to see the monkey on the 500 Rupee note. However John McCririck said it - so it must be true.

[Bruff]

Bit like the word ‘berk’ – you should see the rhyming slang origin of that one…..

I quite like ‘salmon’ for a cigarette, which comes from salmon and trout=snout, which in turn is a slang word from the prisons.

Richard Broughton

[Stanley]

The old ten bob note used to be called 'half a bar'. The pound note was a 'Bradbury' because he signed the first issue as Governor of the BofE.
Threepenny Joey?
A general term was 'stiver' as in "I'm broke, i haven't got a stiver" I think that comes from Dutch. My dad used it a lot.....

[Bruff]

Not the first signatory whose name has passed into ‘slang’. In the US, they will ask for you to ‘ put your John Hancock there’ when signing anything. This stems from the then President of Congress John Hancock’s incredibly stylish and flamboyant signature on the Declaration of Independence.

Richard Broughton

[Bodger]

(The old ten bob note used to be called 'half a bar'.)
or half a nicker ?, reminds me of the school yard joke,Q, why can't a one legged woman change a pound note, Ans, cos shes only half a knicker

[Bodger]

[PanBiker]

Cant see the link Bodge, maybe the Facebook privacy settings.

[Tizer]

The silver threepenny bit was called a tikki (tiki, ticky?) in South Africa. I've mentioned before the double florin (4 shillings) of the 1880s/90s which was known as `Barmaid's Grief' because it was only slightly smaller than the crown (5 shillings) and barmaid's were likely to give customer's change for a crown by mistake when they proffered a double florin.

[Stanley]

Joey,Tanner, Bob, florin, Half a dollar and yes, half a nicker. The old blokes almost always carried a wad of notes and it was referred to as 'carrying'.
Remember the Wren on the farthing? Smallest bird on smallest coin. They were still in use when I was a lad.

[Tizer]

Farthings had just gone out by the time I was able to go to the shop and choose my sweets but it meant that many sweets were still four for a penny. The lady in our corner shop (Mrs Williamson) had a red Oxo tin which she brought out when we kids went in and it had a selection of what was available.

[Cathy]

Do we still use the word fetching? Means captivating, charming
First used 1880. English. 'She had a very fetching smile'.
E

[Stanley]

I think so Cathy... I do anyway!
I had a friend who lived in a small group of cottages at the end of a long entrance lane. They were called The Farthings......

[chinatyke]

Isn't farthings derived from fourthings (fourths) in the same way ridings is derived from thirdings? Perhaps the cottages were originally a fourth part of a larger estate.

[Cathy]

It was interesting to read an article (dated Feb 2014) about a campaign to teach Cockney rhyming slang in the East End schools to preserve it and for it to be recognized as an official dialect.
Some more old ones are borrow and beg - egg, Army and Navy - gravy, didn't ought - a drink of port.
Some new ones are Winona Ryder - cider, Claire Rayners - trainers, Fatboy Slim - gym and The Andy McNab - cab.

[Stanley]

No China, it was a new development and an imaginative developer.
Cathy, I'm all for preserving archaic words, I suppose that's what this topic is all about....