DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

[Stanley]

Good question and I don't know the answer. I think 'sofa' is just about universal now and my Webster tells me that the origin is Turkish/Arabic. Couch sounds French to me. Settee doesn't get a mention but could be related to settle, the wooden version.

[plaques]

I was thinking the other day that the job I was doing was going to take a 'month of Sundays'. In its literal sense it would be just or six months. But if you go back far enough when games or work wasn't allowed on Sundays it would never be finished. I don't hear it much nowadays is it just an older generation saying?

[Stanley]

Could be, I often use it! Interesting point though about the universal Day of Rest. Now where did that go?

[Stanley]

I think it was Plaques who mentioned 'up before the beak' on another topic. Morris Phrase and Fable suggests it was English/Irish underworld slang for magistrate.

[Stanley]

When we had a light shower on a summer morning my grandmother used to say it was "The Pride of the Morning". Has anyone else heard this or was it just one her personal sayings.

[Tizer]

Tripps might enjoy this book...
`Accidence Will Happen: The Non-Pedantic Guide to English Usage' by Oliver Kamm.
The author is chief leader writer and columnist for The Times. As a self-confessed reformed pedant he is the newspaper's unofficial expert on language and style, a subject he tackles in his Saturday column, 'The Pedant'. The Amazon page gives more details: LINK

The pedants come out in droves to try and swamp him with bad reviews. Michael Gove would probably shoot him on sight. The title of the book was suggested by Oliver Kamm's mother and is a pun on the word accidence which is Latin for `to happen'.

[Stanley]

I see Gove as Justice Minister has been instructing his civil servants on grammar... That'll go down well with people a lot smarter then him. Do you ever get the feeling he is not a nice man?

[Tizer]

Yes, Oliver Kamm makes some scathing comments about him in the Times articles.
I notice on the front page of the FT today a headline: "Gove weighs up curbs to make it easier for Government to reject Freedom of Information requests". He'll be appearing in jackboots and a monocle next and getting the government web addresses changed from .gov to .gove

[Stanley]

I always trust my first impressions of people, it saves so much time. I have always regarded Gove with deep suspicion and see no reason to change my view.... I wonder of he is still using his attack dogs on social media.....?

[Cathy]

Stanley you were saying the other day what some groups of animals are called, today I heard what a group of Yorkshire folk are called - A Tight of Yorkshire Folk.

[Marilyn]

Ha Ha...that would be very fitting, Caz.
Yorkshire folk could be considered that way...I think...

[Stanley]

A 'scare' of Yorkshire Folk would be favoured in The South. I was once advised to play the blunt Northerner in some hard negotiations with English Heritage at their HQ in London and it worked like a charm!

[Stanley]

My grandma used to say of someone who was always active that "They have a wheel up their bum". I've never heard anyone else use the expression and have never found anyone who has heard it before. Was she unique?

[Cathy]

I'm reading a novel about a York family set in the mid to late 1800's, lots of old words and phrases eg 'Aye, well just mind yer helm, blatherskite ', clever clogs, scrawmin, 'Who are you trying to cod?' and 'He's ready for t' boneyard'
Euw!!

[Stanley]

I love dialect in speech but hate it in print, it always seems so contrived.....

[Stanley]

Funny how words pop into your head. Yesterday it was 'bletherskite'. Anyone else come across it? What's your interpretation of the meaning?

[Cathy]

Maybe you thought of bletherskite because I mentioned it last Friday on this topic. I think it might mean 'remember your place, don't think you are something that your not ' ??

[Stanley]

I must have forgotten that Cathy.... My understanding is that it comes from the Scots 'blether'.... Someone who talks nonsense.

[Stanley]

I can still hear my mother saying "Reach me, fetch me, carry me!" Whenever she thought we were making unreasonable demands on her. Was this just her or was it a common saying. I can't remember hearing it anywhere else....

[Cathy]

No I haven't heard that one, but in my mind I had echoes of my child saying"Look at me Mum, look at me", especially when she was on the playground equipment.

[Stanley]

Yes, I think we have all had that one. recognition is so important to children. I used to live with a woman who was an excellent primary school teacher and when I asked her how she dealt with demanding children she told me that if you deprive them of eye contact they stop nattering you. When they do stop, the reward is to resume eye contact. It works with dogs as well.....

[Tizer]

I think Mrs Tiz used a similar approach in her teaching days. Don't give the little beggars attention when they're playing up! She always said the most difficult times were windy days or snow - they always got excited and needed calming. Windy days have the same effect on other animals, not just humans. Watch the birds on a windy day. I suspect it's because the birds find it more difficult to detect predators when it's windy and everything's moving about. Humans probably have a deeply rooted instinct that makes them feel less safe when the winds blowing.

[Cathy]

Yes I always think class rooms and small spaces creates cabin-fever. Thank goodness for school playgrounds, sports fields and nature walks.

[Stanley]

Mention of walks and windy weather reminds me of a lady I know who is a Bronte fan. She always refers to a walk on the moor on a windy day as "Having a good wuther" Like me she associates Wuthering Heights with wind and weather. I wonder if that really is the root of the name?

[Stanley]

'An apple a day keeps the doctor away'. There is a lot of truth in some of these very old sayings.....