OneGuyFromBarlick

I second that!

Found myself using the phrase 'Dressed to the nines'. I know its been used on this site before but why 'nines'?

The origin doesn't seem to be clear.

I thought immediately of British Army Uniforms, but of the fourteen or so categories, Number Nine seems to be Tropical Combat Dress, which would hardly be the smartest. So I think we can safely forget that explanation.

The smartest would surely be Mess Dress or Number Ten - 'dressed up to the tens' doesn't have the same ring to it does it? I've got one in my wardrobe - which I've been promising myself to dispose of since 1985, but it's still there - I'll do it one day.

I tend to the school of thought that it is a superlative based on marks out of ten, so an excellent mark.

The recent dry weather, with the fires on Saddleworth Moor, Winter Hill, and now (good heavens) in London at Wanstead Flats reminded me of the word 'sweeling' .

I can't find much reference to it via google - the only one which pertains to burning is Sweel / Sweal

Regular summer 'play' activity for kids at one time. We had no Snapchat you see.

My mother used to put burning newspapers up the chimney to set fire to the loose soot. She called that sweeling the chimney. So in that case it was more accurately cleansing by fire. Done regularly all you got was a burst of smoke and ash, not a chimney fire.

It was also called swaling, just a slight difference in spelling but more on Google!

Thanks for that. It's one of those words that you speak, but rarely see written down.

I'm sure I've asked this before but why do we say that people get on like a house on fire?

I heard an interesting definition this morning on 'Something Understood' on R4. The lady said that in the Middle Ages when pilgrimage to holy Lands, the Sanct Terre, was a common practice, walkers who let it be known they were pilgrims (whether they were or not!) were said to be 'Sancte Terre ing' and this became corrupted over time into 'sauntering'. I like the etymology so much I haven't looked it up!

Stanley wrote: ↑05 Aug 2018, 05:27 I like the etymology so much I haven't looked it up!

You did right not to check it out - you must have had the same hunch that I had - fake def.

I have checked, and I think this from Wiktionary covers it -

"Various fanciful folk etymologies also given.[5][6]"

I'll stick to the fake one..... I like it! I'm a great believer in 'the ring of truth' David....

There have been letters to The Times because someone wrote that flapdoodle meant the same as `nonsense'. A northerner said that's wrong and it meant `panic'.

Tizer wrote: ↑07 Aug 2018, 09:42 A northerner said that's wrong and it meant `panic'.

perhaps he thought it had 'the ring of truth' about it.

No, I think that the 'flap' element triggered that one. 'flap' for panic originated in the RAF I think because of the waggling of the wings if someone was not certain what to do in a dangerous situation. Connotations with frightened hens flapping about.....

A word i haven't heard for years "swig", take a swig from my bottle of tea ?

I use it frequently Bodge, mainly for my early morning dose of cod liver oil and always denoting swigged from the neck of the bottle. All my sources note it as 16th century and of unknown origin.

I'm hearing `weaponise' used frequently. The car used to mow down people the other day was `weaponised'. Social media accounts are being weaponised. Bottles of acid have been weaponised.

It conveys the concept clearly and so I don't object to it.

A man on the radio this morning talked about an `up-tick statistic'. Does he mean a rise, I wonder? (I there such a thing as a down-tick?)

Never heard that one.... Haven't heard 'dead cat bounce' lately either. Another economics based bit of language.

My mystery object has reminded me of 'I'll give you a fourpenny one

Here's a link to the usual range of origins Take your pick. I'm going with the ice cream.

Nice one David. The old pennies were big enough to make a knuckleduster effect if held between the fingers of a clenched fist, but that fails slightly in that only three were needed.
On a different note. 'To buckle down' to a job. In another age when I was doing heavy lifting all day I used to wear a heavy leather belt buckled up tight enough to give your stomach muscles something to bear against when they were under strain. It made a difference at the end of the day. So buckling down makes sense.

Stanley wrote: ↑24 Aug 2018, 03:32 but that fails slightly in that only three were needed.

I didn't look into that close enough - I judged it to be 'fake news' straight away, and didn't think it through.

Just heard the word 'otherising' used on LBC.

"You are otherising' my curly hair".