OneGuyFromBarlick

Dorothy Hartley educates me as usual.
Have you ever wondered why we use the word 'sink' for a washbasin? Dorothy says that it originates in the outdoor benches next to wells which were used for washing in wooden tubs. The waste water was disposed of by pouring it into a soak away next to the bench and this was called the 'sink'.
She taught me something about waterwheels as well. There used to be a small vertical version of a water wheel which was in essence a crude enclosed turbine fed from the top. This was called a 'danside' thought to be a corruption of 'downside' because the water entered downwards from the top. They were very small and only used to drive very light machines.

From today's Spectator - where Oneguy leads, the world follows. . . .

Surely the citation is for the wrong Mr Graham?

Nice David . We don't seek fame, we just nudge the world in the right (our) direction.....

With the Royal Fiasco going on have you noticed the newspapers have adopted a new word...I've seen it as `Mexit' and `Megxit'.

To me that's a symptom of journalism on the whole having a very jaundiced view of the general public's intelligence. They have to fix a strap-line or new word to use as shorthand.
I was once taken to task for being too clever with my BET articles. I was told that the public aren't capable of following an argument or proposition. That was ten years ago and they are still being read.
'Metheglin' another word Dorothy has introduced me to.
"Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary. Welsh. meddyglyn,; medd, mead + llyn, liquor, juice. See Mead a drink "
Used for any potent liquor.

Stanley wrote: ↑13 Jan 2020, 04:33 I was once taken to task for being too clever with my BET articles. I was told that the public aren't capable of following an argument or proposition.

I hope it wasn't someone on the BET staff who told you that - one of the first things you're told at journalism school is the old adage `Never under-estimate your reader's intelligence but never over-estimate their knowledge'.

Another thing that annoys me about news media in Britain is that they're forever making puns in headlines. They seem to think that a straightforward informative headline won't be read. I'm told that the news media in other countries don't have this addiction to puns. I've just seen `Cocoa producers put bar on choc exports'!

No Tiz, it was one individual criticising me.
Just heard a woman from Weight Watchers use the word 'implemate'. when talking about how a cook book helped weight loss. Never heard that before. Do they just make it up as they speak?

As you'll find on your new phone, predictive text has reached such a high level that people no longer nead to lern how to spel corectly.

I was going to say 'spooky time' again, but I've found the explanation.

I read somewhere yesterday that the word 'racism' was unknown fifty years ago. There's a challenge - so I got the trusty Concise Oxford out to check. there was a Post it note marking a page - and would you believe it - it was in the page which contained the word 'racism''. The lesson here is don't believe all you read on the internet.

Paul Daniels would have been proud of that trick - however I did a search on Oneguy, and found that in May 2015 we had been speaking of the spelling of wrack and rack - and I'd quoted the meanings of rack given in the dictionary which I'd forgotten about, and find it's on the same page.

In a reaction to an excess of news of the Royal Family - I've decided to declare the rest of this month 'Meghanuary' and ignore the whole nonsense for a while.

You'll have a job David, they are wall to wall in the absence of any meaningful political news! You could be right about the predictive text but does the word actually exist?
Dorothy threw a reminder at me yesterday. I think we all remember the geared set of rollers used in old fashioned laundering to get excess water out of the clothes when they came out of the dolly tub. (By the way, the soapy water was returned to the tub for the next load) Dorothy reminded me that because before the advent of the machine the common way to get excess water out was to 'wring' the cloth, twisting it tightly to force water out, in the case of the linen industry by a machine to do the twisting. That's how the new invention got the name 'Clothes wringer'. The other common name was 'mangle' and I have no explanation for that. Any ideas?

Stanley wrote: ↑14 Jan 2020, 03:09 Dorothy reminded me that because before the advent of the machine the common way to get excess water out was to 'wring' the cloth, twisting it tightly to force water out..

More spookinesss...the strong winds and heavy rain are forcing water through the door seals into our porch. I'm doing a lot of wringing out of towels!

Re. 'mangle'. Have a look at THIS Wiktionary article. More to this word than meets they eye and I am not a lot wiser in respect of applying mangle to wringing machines. Only thing I can think of is that it's an allusion to the severity of the process.

Thanks again to Dorothy for more education. I always knew that a bush hung outside a building was a sign for a medieval ale house but didn't know the reason why. Dorothy said that the small scale brewers stirred their mashes with a bundle of Birch Twigs which once activated by a small dose of yeast retained the spores as long as they were hung in the open air to allow the yeast to survive. It was this bundle of Birch twigs, the 'bush', that was hung outside the house to denote that ale and beer was sold.
Not many people know that, I trust Dorothy completely, she spent many years researching her subjects.

Having read today's Bob's Bits I had to look up `armigerous': `..entitled to use a heraldic achievement (e.g., bear arms, an "armour-bearer") either by hereditary right, grant, matriculation, or assumption of arms. Such a person is said to be armigerous.' (Wikipedia).

Other reading forced me to look up `comparanda'. It isn't in my Collins and wasn't easy to find on the Web, but `things which are compared' came up. I guessed it meant something like this but hadn't seen it before.

Came across..canaille and pithecoid. Must try to find a way to use them in the politics section.

I had to look both of them up. No wonder I have never encountered them before..... Jacob Rees Mogg language!

The word / acronym FOMO (fear of missing out) has come into fairly common usage lately - I found its complement today in the Spectator.

JOMO - Joy of missing out.

I find this seems to suit me -

I include - Netflix - Game of Thrones, Sky TV, Peaky Blinders, Harry Potter, nearly all social media sites, voting Labour - it's a long list.

I tick the boxes for Netflix (but only because it's free), never watched Game of Thrones, ditched Sky years ago. Tommy and Alfie in Peaky Blinders are required watching, the Potter boy and his gang can be tolerated for the grandchildren, yes I do social media where it takes my fancy and I do vote Labour, probably no hope for me.

I still get confused about LOL.....

I’m just watching The Chase and two of the contestants when asked a question, have each said ‘I haven’t got a scoober’. (maybe it was scoobey)
What’s that all about?

A Scooby Do...clue!

Aah duh. One of them was a Liverpudlian, made it harder to understand.

That is almost a racist remark Cathy ...

Is it? I’m not a racist, so no it wasn’t.

I agree but dialect tends to promote strong feelings, especially when it comes to Liverpool. No criticism of you Cathy, just highlighting how sensitive a matter it can be.