OneGuyFromBarlick

I'm reading 'Love on the Dole' by Walter Greenwood - as recommended our dear leader. Some interesting words.
e.g. an old geyser. In context we would say geezer today - I wonder when it changed.

New word to me 'termagent' can you work it out?

" Wife of Mr Scodger the blacksmith. "and out of working hours, sometimes afforded amusement to the boys of North Street by the differences that occurred between him and his termagent wife." As though he hadn't enough dinning in his ears where he worked"."

It's believed to have originated in a morality play in the Middle Ages and referred to a frightening god/being worshipped by Muslims. Came to be used for a quarrelsome, overbearing woman. First known spelling in the mid 18th C was 'Termagaunt'. (According to Webster)

"(According to Webster)"

I can't see that word without remembering the line from the Bob Hope and Bing Crosby film 'Road to Morocco'. Clever.

"Like Webster's Dictionary we're Morocco bound."

It's a great dictionary! Mine isn't Morocco bound, it's an El Cheapo I got for $10 in a Barnes Sale in Twin Cities. Indispensable....

I've been looking for the origin of the saying 'going at it hammer and tongs', I'm wondering if it came from a blacksmith?

Almost certainly Cathy I should think. Blacksmiths were so important in our lives up to 100 years ago.

I like the saying 'Wet behind the ears', meaning that the person is as intelligent as a new born. It comes from when babies were born and straight away towel dried, they were left still wet behind the ears.

Run of the Mill. = ordinary. What kind of Mill ?

I've heard it used to refer to steel stock with no finish, straight from the rolling mill. Also called black stock.

Cathy wrote:I've been looking for the origin of the saying 'going at it hammer and tongs', I'm wondering if it came from a blacksmith?

Looking at I think one of the Time Team or similar notes or re-constructions on Dark Ages swords, the constant hammering and folding of iron implements was driving out the air(oxygen) and adding a bit of carbon from the fires , effectively creating stainless steel, I think the best swords could take over a week of working to create this.

Similar 'industrial scale' hammering was carried out in the Middle Ages and later in Sheffield and similar areas using a water wheel conected to a system of wooden cogs and bellows to increase fire draw and the cogs operated heavy drop hammers (wooden blocks on long levers ). This created flat plate etc for future finishing .All quite interesting.

Yesterday on "Brain of Britain", one of he questions was 'what geographical feature is a kloof?'
Being familiar with Boggart Hole Clough I guessed the word might be related, and guessed it was a valley.
No one got it right.......except me. Very satisfying.

Tripps wrote:Yesterday on "Brain of Britain", one of he questions was 'what geographical feature is a kloof?'
Being familiar with Boggart Hole Clough I guessed the word might be related, and guessed it was a valley.
No one got it right.......except me. Very satisfying.

My mum is a Kelbrook lass she often uses the word Clough when talking about her childhood play areas in the village.

Not to be confused with 'clow' which is a sluice gate. Same root, ME for ravine or steep sided valley. Neither Webster or Collins recognises it and Ekwall only refers to 'cloh' an Anglo Saxon root.

This BBC article mentions the origin of the word jaywalking but it's interesting on the influence of the auto industry in the USA on making jaywalking illegal:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26073797

This may be one for Thomo. "Gone / went" for a Burton. Always thought it was military slang but never really knew where it came from.

Wiki gives two suggestions for the phrase , one ex RAF http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gone_for_a_Burton . Anyone got early documentary proof of early common usage. ?

plaques wrote:This may be one for Thomo. "Gone / went" for a Burton. Always thought it was military slang but never really knew where it came from.

We did this one to death on the old site. As usual - I didn't believe the Burton's Beer idea, and ended up buying a book by the Victorian explorer Sir Richard Burton, called 'To the Holy Shrines'. Fascinating Can't remember what my final conclusion was.

I cannot find a Burton's Beer in the 1930s-1950s anyone got an ad of that time (souce wikipedia - breweries of Burton on Trent.

What most of us used to call 'problems' was changed in recent years to the less negative 'challenges'. Now they are starting to change again to 'headwinds'. Latest example - used by the Governor of the B of E.

"Carney Says Headwinds Suppressing BOE Interest Rate Will Persist"

Bit like the change of language used in weather forecasting these days. I suppose it's allowed but I'd prefer more precise language on subjects like this. The Shipping Forecast is a prime example of good clear language using well understood and hence precise words.

At meetings to relieve the tedium of folks who liked the sound of their own voices, I used to invent little phrases and introduce them into my briefings, it was surprising the number of folks who picked up these phrases and used them. People want to belong and use the language which makes them seem in the know.

I came across 'bourne' the other day, a valley which is a dried up river bed. Not used up here, I suppose our equivalent is the clough.

I thought it related to the stream itself rather than the valley. Plenty of examples from when I lived in Dorset. Sherborne, Wimborne, Bournemouth, and several places with the prefix Winterbourne where it was only a river in winter?

Eastbourne

The picture of tups reminded me of 'plenty of raddle on her back'.