Words and phrases

[File HandleParticipant @filehandle]

Posted by ega on 16/11/2022 17:24:52:

Feeding time for factory-farmed porkers is like a vision of the damned in hell and I think most folk would not want to witness it.

There might be more relevance in "eats like a boar"!

The worst bit is when they get into another group and attach each other, typically death follows a pulled out tail.

[Harry WilkesParticipant @harrywilkes58467]

How about 'gnat's cock' down in the black country equals a undefined number of thou's and 'looking black over our Bill's Mother's' meaning dark clouds

H

[Mick B1Participant @mickb1]

Posted by Harry Wilkes on 16/11/2022 18:23:22:

How about 'gnat's cock' down in the black country equals a undefined number of thou's and 'looking black over our Bill's Mother's' meaning dark clouds

H

The size of which does define the precision range to which a shop works. I worked in some places where they were 1 or 2 thou, others where they were 15 or more.

In the summer of '76 though, all these insects bit pretty much the same…

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

Posted by duncan webster on 16/11/2022 14:38:41:

Posted by Taf_Pembs on 15/11/2022 23:01:08:

……..

Dead ringer still gives me the shivers though!

That seems to be an urban myth. It comes from horse racing, where a 'ringer' was a duplicate horse, and 'dead' meant exact

As Taf, I think it is connected to working the “graveyard shift”

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

Posted by Harry Wilkes on 16/11/2022 18:23:22:

How about 'gnat's cock' down in the black country equals a undefined number of thou's and 'looking black over our Bill's Mother's' meaning dark clouds

H

Bill being William of Orange so dark skies in the direction of Holland

Martin

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

In our family a footpath was a twitchel and those round bread-like things that look like edible rosebud grates, are pikelets.

(I'd not not have enjoyed making pikelets. All that hole-drilling!)

Our Grandad had a stock of favourite sayings, though I think he had coined them as I've never heard anyone else use them. They were usually in answer to grand-children's questions:

Shall we go for a walk, Grandad?

I can't – I've got a bone in me leg.

Where are we going?

There and back to see how far it is.

.

While as the widow of a Nottinghamshire miner our Auntie Edie was not in penury, she did have to watch her spending a bit, so putting jam on the bread-and-butter was rather High Tea. Nevertheless, ask her what was for tea, and her favourite reply was positively sumptuous: "Jam an' Herrings!"

Calling on her one day, unannounced, I found her in the middle of house-work, still in a voluminous slip without a dress over it: "Oh, come in, and an' here's me in me disbuss!"

To these relations, knowing the neighbour's name was always assumed, for they'd invariably be "Mrs. Next-door", or similar.

For one not especially rich, one old description is "Hasn't two ha'pennies to rub together"

.

The phrase "dead ringer" is normally meant as a match. It was even the title line in one of Meatloaf's best known songs: Dead Ringer For Love.

While fans of a certain "antidote to panel-games" on the wireless, will know its version of "gnat's cock" is gnat's crochet.

[NealebParticipant @nealeb]

A whole bunch of common phrases have come down from the nautical world, of course. Some make some kind of sense – "set sail", for example – even if they are no longer used in their original exact sense. But how many know the real meaning of "changing tack," "the bitter end," or "plain sailing"? Plenty more, of course!

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

Bringing the wind onto the opposite bow when sailing 'on a bowline' (changing tack)

The end of an anchor cable (as in rope) attached to the bitts of a ship (being the bault of timber firmly attached to the hull timbers on the centreline)

Having only square sails set.

regards Martin

Square meals are called so from the square wooden platters used.

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

QUOTE "Oh, come in, and an' here's me in me disbuss!

From the French, Habille, meaning dressed, so disbuss = dis habille.

How about "thick as two short planks"?

[Tom SheppardParticipant @tomsheppard60052]

The one that has gone out of use most recently seems to be "Railway Station". Train station seems an ugly phrase.

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

Why do we have the more recent "at this moment in time" meaning NOW and also "back story" meaning HISTORY?

"Low hanging fruit" also comes to mind.

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Nealeb on 20/11/2022 11:38:07:

A whole bunch of common phrases have come down from the nautical world, of course. … But how many know the real meaning of … "plain sailing"?

Pedant alert! Loads of people believe it to be "plain sailing", but it's actually "Plane Sailing"; it's a simplified form of navigation suitable for coastal and short voyages where the calculations ignore the curvature of the earth, assuming the world is flat over short distances.

The difference between plane sailing position and reality grows rapidly with distance but the approximation is 'good enough' until a long blue water journey takes the sailor well out of sight of land.

Navigating with limited information is 'quite interesting'. Lots of clues in the sky and wave patterns etc, but knowing a Lodestone points reliably North even in fog was a major advance. And then to discover speed can be found by bunging a log overboard on a string and time measured moderately accurately with an egg-timer. Add measuring the sun's altitude with a back-staff to get latitude and the early long distance navigator could get close enough to recognise landmarks. High risk though, plenty of sinkings due to running ashore unexpectedly. Longitude is considerably harder to find, and although pendulums coupled with smart astronomical observations were vital, pendulums don't work on ships! Marine chronometers were seriously advanced technology.

Dave

[gerry maddenParticipant @gerrymadden53711]

Nealeb, I think I remember reading many years ago when I was into navigation, that 'plain' in plain sailing should be spelt 'plane'. This was because the mathematics treated the earth surface as flat, as opposed to curved, which would of course be much more complex geometry.

Gerry

ooops crossed post with SoD

 

 

Edited By gerry madden on 20/11/2022 13:42:26

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

In view of the difficulties evident on a concurrent thread … I nominate model

MichaelG.

[NealebParticipant @nealeb]

I've been around this and other forums long enough to know how to tease a pedant from its lair! As this thread refers to words and phrases that have lost their point of reference, I felt that using the commonly-accepted modern spelling of "plain" would indicate how it had lost touch to some extent with its original form and meaning.

As a small boy, I was often referred to as "the nipper." Another terms with its roots in nautical history.

[V8EngParticipant @v8eng]

Still nautically based, a couple of phrases I have not heard for many years:-

Swinging the Lead.

Can’t Fathom it.

Edited By V8Eng on 20/11/2022 16:56:04

[Nick Clarke 3Participant @nickclarke3]

Posted by Nealeb on 20/11/2022 15:00:44:

I've been around this and other forums long enough to know how to tease a pedant from its lair!

As a pedant myself can I point out that according to one online dictionary to tease means to make fun of or attempt to provoke (a person or animal) in a playful way or to gently pull or comb (tangled wool, hair, etc.) into separate strands – and to drag a pedant from its lair is not provoking exactly, while close I must admit, nor is it being combed into separate strands

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Posted by Nigel Graham 2 on 16/11/2022 20:51:03:

cut

Our Grandad had a stock of favourite sayings, though I think he had coined them as I've never heard anyone else use them. They were usually in answer to grand-children's questions:

Shall we go for a walk, Grandad?

I can't – I've got a bone in me leg.

Where are we going?

There and back to see how far it is.

.

cut.

Hi Nigel, my mum used to use both of those sayings when we were kids, and also to her grand children.

Regards Nick.

[Rob McSweeneyParticipant @robmcsweeney81205]

"Plain" (as distinct to Plane) sailing could possibly be correct if it is a reference to being under "all plain sail" , that is the full set of working sails but no extras such as studding sails (stuns'ls) water sails etc, or on modern yachting usage spinnakers or cruising chutes.

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