DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

[Tizer]

I suppose he thinks he can use it by analogy with tower and towering (`the crane was towering above us').

[Stanley]

Good point Peter and I can see the logic, it's just that the only time I have ever seen it used before is when someone is said to be steepling their fingers......

[Tripps]

I came across the phrase "side the table" mentioned on on another site yesterday. (Manchester History Facebook)

It was agreed that many had heard of it, but not for a very long time.

That would be my position too.

[PanBiker]

My mum used that one David, quite frequently.

[Stanley]

I still talk about siding meaning tidying things. The US equivalent that fooled me for a while is /bus' . You'd see signs in fast food outlets:-'Please bus your table.
On a different tack entirely I came across a word today and had to look it up. Dypigus... ' An individual with a congenital deformity where the body axis forks left and right partway along the torso, with the posterior end (pelvis and legs) duplicated.'.

[Stanley]

The word 'rasher' describing a slice of bacon grabbed me so I looked it up and found this....
in cookery, "thin slice of bacon or ham," 1590s, a word of unknown origin. Perhaps from Middle English rash "to cut," variant of rase "to rub, scrape out, erase." However, early lexicographer John Minsheu explained it in 1627 as a piece "rashly or hastily roasted."
Then I looked up 'bacon'.
Middle English: from Old French, from a Germanic word meaning ‘ham, flitch’; related to back.
Then it occurred to me that I didn't know the exact meaning of Gammon, was it just a posh name for ham?
The word 'gammon' is derived from the Middle English word for 'ham', gambon, which is attested since the early 15th century and derived from Old North French gambon, itself derived from Old French jambon, which is identical to the modern French word for 'ham'.

[Tizer]

Tripps wrote this on 5th December last year:
I note the increasing use of the phrase 'reach out' . It's American of course and irritates me a little more than 'share'.
Since then it seems to have become as much British as American and is much used by politicians, marketing men, celebrities etc. Unfortunately it has been taken up by many others. I heard the mother in the Martha's Law case asked if a government minister had contacted her and she replied `No, but I reached out to them'. It conjures a picture in my mind of her standing outside Parliament and stretching our her arms towards the building.

I'm sure it became a favourite of politicians, councillors and business people because it's so vague and allows them to give an impression of having engaged with a person when in fact they've made no attempt to make contact. A cunning wheeze.

[Tripps]

Tripps wrote this on 5th December last year:

Wow - someone takes some notice of the rubbish I unburden myself of, on here.

[Stanley]

Some of us actually read every topic and thread David.
Pity those in power don't do the same, they could avoid many of their current problems. Just think where we would be now if they'd listened to us during the debate on Brexit. Remember Richard Broughton flagging up the pitfalls (Like Ireland!) long before they happened?

[Stanley]

Have you ever heard of Uveco? Nowadays it's a way of cleaning the air in elevators but forty years ago it was a proprietary brand of cooked flaked maize that looked remarkably like underdone corn flakes, not surprising because that's what it was. It was a very clean and efficient way of supplementing the diet of cattle and was an essential component of what was called 'coarse ration' a mixture of the very best feeds available and very expensive because you could see exactly what was in it.
Cooked flaked maize is still available but is very expensive and is called Micronated maize.....

[Cathy]

Came across this today
Vomitorium
A room where ancient Romans went to throw-up after eating lavish meals, so they could return to the table and feast some more.

Gross

[Stanley]

I remember when I first came across that Cathy and thought how gross it was.......

[Tizer]

This was a first for me today: psephologist, someone who studies elections and voting statistics.
"The term draws from the Greek word for pebble as the ancient Greeks used pebbles to vote. (Similarly, the word ballot is derived from the medieval French word "ballotte," meaning a small ball)." From Wikipedia

[Tripps]

That surprises me - though the actual word is little used now.

The main man on election night used to be David Butler- whilst now Mr Ubiquitous is now John Curtice whom I'm sure will be recognised. Both had (have) encyclopaedic knowledge of elections.

[Stanley]

And I think James Naughtie must be the last user of the term psephologist because I seem to remember hearing him using it to introduce Professor Curtice.

[Cathy]

“The ball is in your court.”
To take the next action or decision in a situation.

I wonder if this has evolved from when the Greeks used a pebble for voting, and ballotte (French - to vote) meaning a small ball. Tize / Wikipedia.

[Stanley]

I always thought it was a direct reference to real tennis....

[Cathy]

I wonder if relating to Tennis is a more modern way of using the phrase.

[Stanley]

Cathy, I think the inference was that if the ball was in your court it was your turn/responsibility to make the next move. In that sense I don't see it as having changed.....

[Tripps]

I considered using the little used French derived phrase "on the qui vive".

First of course check it out to see if my understanding of it was correct.

Yes - it derives from the challenge of a French sentry "qui Vive" = "who lives" - similar to our "who goes there" and means be alert to danger.

By the time I'd done all that - I'd forgotten why I wanted to use it. Ah well I'll know for next time. . . .

[Stanley]

A phrase I have been using all my life. We had a French Master, Fred Norris, who was very keen on getting us to use the language as much as possible so he encouraged us to use these phrases and be aware of the French origin of many of our common words.

[Cathy]

Pas Francois
.
The things you come across…
.

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.
.

[Stanley]

Never come across that one Cathy..... Doubt if I will ever use it!

[Tripps]

Doubt if I will ever use it!

I will now I know of it - I practice it on an almost daily basis.

Here's a bit more background -

Like a lot of the words that crop up on HH, hurkle-durkle is an old dialect term—in this case, one from eighteenth century southern Scotland. One of its earliest records comes from John Jamieson’s Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language (1808):

To HURKLE-DURKLE, v. n. To lie in bed, or to lounge after it is time to get up or go to work. (Fife.)

Jamieson points to durck or durch—an old Germanic word for the hold of a ship—as the word’s probable origin, perhaps seeing some kind of etymological connection between someone lurking in bed and someone lurking in the dim, grimy bottom of a ship. He should really try changing his sheets more often.

But in reduplicative words like these, it’s often the case that the first part of the word is the original root, to which a second part has been added as a little more than a rhyming, humorous, playful tag. So okey-dokey comes from okay. Hoity-toity comes from hoit (an old verb meaning to act affectedly or, according to the OED, “to romp inelegantly”). Hurkle-durkle, then, likely comes from the old Scots verb hurkle, or hurkill, meaning ‘to draw the limbs together close to the body’. From there, it’s easy to see where the image of someone cosily curled up in bed, reluctant to get up, might develop.

As is often the case with regional and dialect words, of course, it’s impossible to say with any certainty which of these two theories (if indeed either) is correct without more evidence and research. But we’ll do that later. Frankly, it’s just far too tempting to stay in bed.



Love "reduplicative words"

[Stanley]

Perhaps my problem is that I am not tempted by staying in bed.....
What's old Scots dialect for someone who is an early riser?