DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

[Stanley]

In my dart playing days we used to decide the order of play be throwing one arrow as near to the bull as possible. This was known around here as 'middle for diddle'. Was this widespread or just a northern thing?

[Bodger]

definitely in n. cheshire around Hyde

[Stanley]

That figures, I first heard it in Stockport. Did you ever play on a Manchester Board? We called them a 'log-end'. Much smaller than the standard board and different divisions.

[Bodger]

Yes with wooden darts, flights were feathers glued on, the weights were lead bands inserted in grooves around the the dart body, notethenumber locations on a log end
http://www.google.ie/imgres?imgurl=http ... CcQMygEMAQ

[Bodger]

another try, http://www.darts501.com/ManchesterTR.htm

[PanBiker]

I have edited your first link post Bodge, you had an extra character in the web address.

[Tripps]

That figures, I first heard it in Stockport. Did you ever play on a Manchester Board? We called them a 'log-end'. Much smaller than the standard board and different divisions.

I woke up this morning thinking that I would comment on this thread. I thought I would mention the Manchester dartboard, and did anyone remember the smaller size, different layout, the thin doubles, and the lack of trebles. - and was it made from wood?

Looks like I wasn't the only one.

[Stanley]

The ones I played on were definitely just what the name describes, a thin slice across a very dense log. The last one I saw was in what I think was the Bridge Inn on Wellington Road South in Stockport just above the Mersey on the East side. Very difficult to score on them and a 'normal' board looked enormous after playing on a Log End..... (You must have led a misspent youth just like me!)

[plaques]

A word I dropped across but never seen before was 'scribblers'. Not the usual meaning of writing etc. Over to you Stanley.

[Stanley]

Interesting one P. One of the first processes in preparing fibres for spinning is getting them lying parallel to each other. In cotton and short staple wool this was done with 'carding combs' which were wooden paddles covered with carding cloth which was a material studded with short wire bristles all leaning in the same direction. The material was 'combed' between two opposing cards with the needles pointing in opposite directions. The result was a 'rollag' which could be used to produce a longer 'sliver' which was used by the spinner to feed the fibres to the spinning mechanism. In the wool trade, with longer staples, the hank of wool was hung on a hook and carded with a needle studded comb. 'Scribbling' was slightly different and used mainly in the linen industry where the hank had much longer staple and was wet when processed. The needles were in a fixed 'horse' and the wet hank of linen was draped over the horse and pulled through the fine points of the card, or in this case the scribbler. So a scribbler was either one who did this work or the machine, originally a needle studded horse, that was used to straighten the fibre. The term was used in the southern industries for any process of straightening the fibres. In the North it was almost invariably called 'carding'.

[plaques]

A first class explanation. I picked the word up from a library book by Thomas Crump, ' How the Industrial Revolution Changed the World'. An easy to read book with far too many references and names than I could possibly remember. Initially invented by an American for getting the seeds out of the raw cotton. Perhaps worth buying if you go for this sort of thing.

[Stanley]

Did you know that the modern view of the invention of the Cotton Gin patented by Eli Whitney in 1793 which completely revolutionised the US cotton industry was almost certainly the work of his wife?

[plaques]

The book only mentions that he was a New England school master and that the gin was initially driven by a horse capstan that could be easily moved to the smaller plantations. Steam engines being too heavy and too expensive for general use.

[plaques]

Mr Cameron set this thought off with his total refusal to explain where the billions in welfare cuts will fall. We would normally say this is a 'pig in a poke'. Danny Alexander appears to have let the cat out of the bag or should it be a pig?

[Tizer]

The whole things a bag of nails, nay, a dog's breakfast even.

[Stanley]

Good description of our modern outdated political system. 'The art of the possible'.

[Tizer]

The Radio 4 `BH' programme had a nice piece on `oaths' this morning following on from John Major's `merry hell' phrase. They asked listeners to write in and have their oaths read out. What fun! Mind you, they didn't have Mrs Tiz's favourite oath: `stink!' If you don't think that's a strong word you ought to hear her say it!

[Stanley]

I had a friend who only used 'knickers' and it was just as powerful as the strongest language. When my father was really exasperated he would say 'Jesus wept, Moses crept and Aaron played his bloody fiddle!'. You knew then he was reaching the end of his tether. (now there's an expression....)

[Tizer]

I remember as a child that the German soldiers in my comics would always say "Mein Gott und Lieber Kinder" (I think it means My God and Lovely Children). Not sure why they included the children bit.

[Cathy]

I remember 'Hells bells and buckets of blood' and 'You know what Thought thought ! He thought he had a dollar in his pocket but when he looked he found he had nothing!' when I was growing up.

[Tizer]

In Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels there's a character called Foule Ole Ron who speaks in riddles and keeps saying `Bugrit!"
One of my cousins, when he got agitated as a child (like if he saw a worm), would shout "Gaganana!"

[Cathy]

I sometimes hear the expression 'Cool bananas', it's used to say Thankyou at the end of a phone call or anytime to say 'Don't worry, its all fine'.

[Marilyn]

Cazza...the "Thought thought" I always got told was...
"Thought stuck a feather in the ground and thought it would grow a Chicken."

There was also the "IF" ones...
" if wishes were horses, beggars would ride"
and
" if ifs and buts were pots and pans, there'd be no need for Tinkers"

My former Mother-in-law used to call Huntsman Spiders " Tri-anti-wanty-goggles".

[Bodger]

where does the word po come from in regard to chamberpots, my father always called it the gusunda

[Cathy]

Don't know about po, but guzunda brought 'echo-chamber' to mind.