DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

[Stanley]

I used the word 'perks' this morning. I wonder how many could say that this is short for perquisites?

[PanBiker]

What rankles me is the insistence of sticking an R in many perfectly good and already pronounceable words such as MASTER , CASTLE etc. There is no R in either example and many more that gets the treatment. It normally seems to automatically follow an A which in my book is pronounced Ah not Ar.

[Tripps]

My lads still occasionally mock my pronunciation of such words as 'castle' etc. I use the short 'a' whilst they (mainly brought up on the South of England) use the long vowel. I try not to let it annoy me, confident that my pronunciation is correct.

PS I knew where 'perks' came from.

[Stanley]

I agree totally about the short A! With a grand daughter living in Bath it arises frequently.
I shan't get into detail about my problems with Estuary English, it would be boring but all I will say is that much of the mis-pronunciation seems to totally ignore what I was always taught were correct vowel sounds.

[Stanley]

I used the phrase 'scot free' this morning and looked up the origin.
"From Middle English scotfre, from Old English scotfrēo (“scot-free; exempt from royal tax or imposts”), equivalent to scot (“payment; contribution; fine”) +‎ -free. n. Money assessed or paid."

[Wendyf]

"It's all downhill from here." Is that good news or bad news?

[Tripps]

Good question - my immediate reaction would be for 'bad news', but it could I now realise, equally mean 'good news.

I find that it is a Contronym or perhaps more correctly a contranymic phrase. Examples of such words are 'sanction' and 'cleave'.

Reading all that shows that there are some really clever devils about, and I'm am not amongst them.

[Wendyf]

Interesting isn't it? Col was having a big moan about the weather and I told him not to worry because it was all uphill from now, meaning today was the worst and it was due to improve. He couldn't grasp that concept, seeing downhill as an improvement!

[Stanley]

I agree with David about Contonyms, never heard of them!
I'm with you Wendy, downhill to me means deterioration, fits in with the description of a bad state of affairs being a 'low'.
I agree with Col about the weather yesterday, it was a shocker. I popped out of the front door to check that it was really sleet that was falling at about 15:30 and almost got blown over!

[Whyperion]

What rankles me is the insistence of sticking an R in many perfectly good and already pronounceable words such as MASTER , CASTLE etc. There is no R in either example and many more that gets the treatment. It normally seems to automatically follow an A which in my book is pronounced Ah not Ar.

Adding the R in is seen as a mark of intelligence or superiority . What did the landed gentry in the North say? Did it become part of the "frenchificaion" of speaking in the C17th when the U in certain words was added ( which the US didnt get in their English ) when written?

[Stanley]

I tripped over this word this morning. Never seen it before.
Thalassophobia is an intense phobia or fear of large or deep water. If you have thalassophobia, you may be afraid of the ocean, sea, and large lakes. Some people may deal with a little anxiety about the ocean.

[Stanley]

I used an old saying this morning which I haven't heard anyone else use for years. "Lord bless the Duke of Argyll. A scratching post at every mile."
I can't find any clear origin beyond the fact that the Dukes of Argyll seem to have erected scratching posts for their verminous cattle and tenants.

[Tripps]

Never heard of the Duke of Argyle thing. Insult to flea ridden Scots?

I came across the word eschatology yesterday and of course had to Google it.

The result took me to deep places indeed .

"Christian eschatology looks to study and discuss matters such as death and the afterlife, Heaven and Hell, the Second Coming of Jesus, the resurrection of the dead, the rapture, the tribulation, millennialism, the end of the world, the Last Judgment, and the New Heaven and New Earth in the world to come."

"Particularly in Catholic theology, eschatology has traditionally been defined as being concerned with the so-called four last things: death, judgment, heaven, and hell. (To these four are sometimes added Purgatory and the resurrection of the body.)"

Relying - as I often do - on Occam's Razor ( 'the simplest explanation is more likely to be right') and the thoughts of Lee Kuan Yew ("after death I will simply cease to exist") it was quite easy to dismiss it all as nonsense, and entirely a mechanism to induce fear and obedience in the faithful. I then thought of the millions of hours of study and research that 'scholars' have put into it over many centuries, and wondered if it was arrogant to think that I should be right and they should all be wrong.

Told you it was deep - quite sobering - but I'll stick with my thoughts thank you.

[Stanley]

I'm with you David and have been for most of my life. I realise that I might be wrong but have tried to lead a good life and rely on the fact that if there is a god, heaven and all that he or she will probably take that into account.....

[Stanley]

Poll is a word we use frequently. I was sure I knew the origin but went off into the bushes to check....
"Middle English (in the sense ‘head’): perhaps of Low German origin. The original sense was ‘head’, and hence ‘an individual person among a number’, from which developed the sense ‘number of people ascertained by counting of heads’ and then ‘counting of heads or of votes’ (17th century)."

[Stanley]

Have you noticed that the in-word to use as a descriptor if you are selling a knife, a flash light, or anything used outdoors is 'tactical'. I have just seen an advert for a 'tactical waterproof jacket'.

[Tizer]

I wonder if it was meant to be 'tactile waterproof jacket'?

[PanBiker]

I would agree with Stanley, advertisers are definitely using tactical to describe anything remotely for outside use.

[Stanley]

Advertising copy-writers have much to answer for. These changes come as they struggle to find ways to make the products they are selling more exciting. A tactical flash lamp is more attractive than a boring normal one.....
I have noticed a new class of rip-off selling, the 'tactical' mini telescopic sight that can be used with any camera or phone to give crystal clear images of objects miles away. All a load of bunkum of course but someone, somewhere is making money out of the scam.