tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post5005279755602615508..comments2024-03-16T00:21:43.240+00:00Comments on Separated by a Common Language: institutional verbslynneguisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comBlogger34125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-74026028605228327552008-05-07T08:12:00.000+01:002008-05-07T08:12:00.000+01:00The Australian English term for informing on someo...The Australian English term for informing on someone is "dobbing" (in a school context, not in a police context - the word has strong juvenile connotations). One five-year-old child may refer to another five-year-old child as a "dibber-dobber" - a depreciating term for "one who informs".Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-28228798466944800582007-11-22T11:37:00.000+00:002007-11-22T11:37:00.000+00:00Um, that's the same clip that I linked to in my po...Um, that's the same clip that I linked to in my post.lynneguisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-15961000463631383222007-11-22T03:36:00.000+00:002007-11-22T03:36:00.000+00:00If you like the verb "section" (and surreal Briis...If you like the verb "section" (and surreal Briish sitcoms) check out Peep Show S2E4 - specifically this clip:<BR/><BR/>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dmtQ8pKTk0Johnny Ehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02332149992788801634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-54700260476514838862007-11-05T16:39:00.000+00:002007-11-05T16:39:00.000+00:00Lynneguist: "But, Doug, section 8 has never been a...Lynneguist: "But, Doug, section 8 has never been a verb, has it?"<BR/><BR/>I think it can (or could) be so used, though I think "Give him a Section 8" or "He's a complete Section 8" are/were more common.<BR/><BR/>Lynneguist: "Drop a dime isn't actually a phrase I'd know/use. I presume it refers to the former cost of a call from a public phone?"<BR/><BR/>Unless I'm mistaken, it's quite an old usage, as you might surmise from the price. But I think it's also currently used pretty commonly in the "hip hop culture". The latter bit I didn't know until I did a Google search to see whether the term was current. (67K GHits, FWIW.)Doug Sundsethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01848091504066560951noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-68161649254903906672007-11-05T13:53:00.000+00:002007-11-05T13:53:00.000+00:00Re: grassing up, I think this passage from Brass E...Re: grassing up, I think this passage from Brass Eye may be enlightening.<BR/><BR/>David Qunt: "Here you are being grassed up to the filth. How would you feel if you, there, had accidentally grassed yourself?"<BR/><BR/>Frankie Fraser: "Well that's me own fault it would be wouldn't it."<BR/><BR/>DQ: "So that, that would make you less mad?"<BR/><BR/>FF: "Well exactly if you grassed yourself you'd have yourself to blame but how on earth could you grass yourself?"<BR/><BR/>DQ: "I don't know, you might have got, drunk or something, you might have given yourself away.."<BR/><BR/>FF: "Oh no, no way no, you don't do that, it can't happen - we're too experienced."<BR/><BR/>DQ: "Was there ever a time when you weren't experienced -"<BR/><BR/>FF: "No, never, no -"<BR/><BR/>DQ: "Do you think you were born experienced enough not to grass yourself?"<BR/><BR/>FF: "I think so yeah."Ginger Yellowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06103410278129312943noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-49929307298088304362007-11-04T23:12:00.000+00:002007-11-04T23:12:00.000+00:00Re unemployment, there's also "redundancy" or "mak...Re unemployment, there's also "redundancy" or "make redundant" for US "lay( )off"; and the names of forms UB40 and P45 are used metonymically.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-22318929819100660832007-11-04T22:05:00.000+00:002007-11-04T22:05:00.000+00:00Thanks for the list of hobbies Lynne, that's very ...Thanks for the list of hobbies Lynne, that's very interesting. There is actually research showing that "serious leisure" (pursuing something in depth in one's free time) is very beneficial. (A sociologist called Stebbins is the specialist in serious leisure.) I think people with passions of some kind are far more interesting than those who just watch TV, go to a movie occasionally, go to a club/bar/etc, go for a walk now and then, etc. Maybe (North) Americans should follow the British on this one.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-78140024875035189052007-11-04T15:51:00.000+00:002007-11-04T15:51:00.000+00:00One British verb that has institutional origins an...One British verb that has institutional origins and that you have probably not have come accross is "twocking" - a word I came accross in the city of Sheffield, and which may be specific to there. It derives from the acronym TWOC (Taken Without Owner's Consent), which is what gets written on the police report when someone steals a car and goes joyriding. In certain areas of Sheffield the practice of twocking is an example of one of those wonderful British hobbies you mention.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-69569351757538940262007-11-04T11:58:00.000+00:002007-11-04T11:58:00.000+00:00All the tag stuff is very strange. Blogger won't ...All the tag stuff is very strange. Blogger won't let me post a comment with an incomplete tag...so I don't know how that one happened.<BR/><BR/>DTR, <I>to squeal</I> has a different feeling to me. You squeal when you're under interrogation, but you shop someone of your own accord. OED doesn't mark <I>squeal</I> as AmE, but all of its examples of it are from North American sources.lynneguisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-51821090428614648812007-11-04T04:04:00.000+00:002007-11-04T04:04:00.000+00:00To squeal?To squeal?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-50255622610840649942007-11-03T23:21:00.000+00:002007-11-03T23:21:00.000+00:00My browser (Internet Explorer 6 SP2 on Windows XP)...My browser (Internet Explorer 6 SP2 on Windows XP) also shows all of the three posts following electric dragon's to be hyperlinked to the Web page about McG.<BR/><BR/>I also have been fortunate enough never to have seen any of the productions listed for McG, so I also had never heard of him.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-64138161569749605572007-11-03T22:46:00.000+00:002007-11-03T22:46:00.000+00:00Ach - maybe its me then - But for me, the three p...Ach - maybe its me then - But for me, the three posts after electricdragon's all link to the same McG link :)<BR/><BR/>I inserted the html to close the anchor in my post starting "Dang ..." and after that everything appears OK to me.<BR/><BR/>I was concerned because I thought that something I had done was responsible, and I wanted to fix it. However, I suspect its a failing of blogger. Many web boards insert closures for HTML tags that could be open at the end of each post. <BR/><BR/>But I'll leave it alone now. Sorry to have been a nuisance :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-69338065562603688102007-11-03T22:35:00.000+00:002007-11-03T22:35:00.000+00:00johnb, I can't change someone else's comment, so c...johnb, I can't change someone else's comment, so can't close electricdragon's tag. But the only problem there seems to be that the link continues into the date stamp. Links in subsequent comments work fine--I just put up a test comment with a link (and then deleted it, as it was irrelevant), and it linked as it should have--as do the links to commenters' blogger profiles...lynneguisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-9574396781612932792007-11-03T22:22:00.000+00:002007-11-03T22:22:00.000+00:00Andi, you're right about shop up. I'd never heard...Andi, you're right about <I>shop up</I>. I'd never heard it myself (but hear <I>shop (someone)</I> a lot. I was misled by the OED, which says "Also with <I>up</I>" right after that definition, but the only examples of <I>shop up</I> it has are those where it means <I>shut up</I>. (It was kind of a run-on definition.) I'll take the <I>up</I> out of that bit...lynneguisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-1353985591362125252007-11-03T22:07:00.000+00:002007-11-03T22:07:00.000+00:00hi - still very much enjoying your posts and these...hi - still very much enjoying your posts and these discussions. one quibble: I am a native BrE speaker, reasonably familiar with talk of grassing and shopping; I am used to the construction "he grassed me up" (or "he grassed on me") but I've never heard or read the construction "he shopped me up". or "he shopped on me", for that matter, in case anyone wondered.<BR/><BR/>when you shop someone, you usually shop them *to* someone or something, you probably wouldn't hear someone say just "he shopped me". you might hear someone say "he grassed on me" or "he grassed me up" without explaining exactly what had happened.<BR/><BR/>and if I think a bit more, my hunch is that you usually shop someone to the *authorities* - the bizzies (= 'busies', aka police, especially in Liverpool), the Social, or whatever; I think you can grass on someone to Big Tony as well as them.<BR/><BR/>cheers<BR/><BR/>AndiAndihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07164507117108556063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-55783796936687144152007-11-03T19:57:00.000+00:002007-11-03T19:57:00.000+00:00Lynne - the link works properly - however, it has...Lynne - the link works properly - however, it hasn't been closed. That is why all the following posts all link to the same place. <BR/><BR/>If you can edit the post put the <_/A> tag at the very end of it. ( without the underscore in the middle)<BR/><BR/>If you can't edit that post but can edit my post that follows use <_a_> <_/a_>. (again with out the underscore). It trickes blogger into closing the Anchor code :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-12856513601157954932007-11-03T18:41:00.000+00:002007-11-03T18:41:00.000+00:00johnb, I'm just not seeing what the problem is tha...johnb, I'm just not seeing what the problem is that you're talking about. The link in electricdragon's post works for me.<BR/><BR/>Anon, you've not said what dialect you're talking about--but also I think you're getting a bit far from the target!lynneguisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-63328560402566104282007-11-03T14:48:00.000+00:002007-11-03T14:48:00.000+00:00Dang. Forgot to close it at the begining of the l...<A> </A><BR/>Dang. Forgot to close it at the begining of the last post.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-29040045949525102892007-11-03T14:47:00.000+00:002007-11-03T14:47:00.000+00:00ach - it needs (without the underscores)at...ach - it needs <BR/><BR/><_a_> <_/a_> <BR/><BR/>(without the underscores)at the end of electric dragon's post. Or at the very begining of the post that follows it. That will force a close to the anchor tag that is generating the hyper linkAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-45318542221495115742007-11-03T14:02:00.000+00:002007-11-03T14:02:00.000+00:00"coughed" could be included here, that is, to admi..."coughed" could be included here, that is, to admit to something <BR/><BR/>"The suspect later COUGHED for a further two burglaries"Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-50640823524563625412007-11-03T07:05:00.000+00:002007-11-03T07:05:00.000+00:00electric dragon - you will be pleased to know that...electric dragon - you will be pleased to know that I have never heard of him, or seen any of his work. :)<BR/><BR/>But then - I don't think I have ever seen 'Spaced' either.<BR/><BR/>I'm not really much of a TV / Film watcher.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-88330495586078777512007-11-02T23:39:00.000+00:002007-11-02T23:39:00.000+00:00johnb - not the Melbourne Cricket Ground but rathe...johnb - not the Melbourne Cricket Ground but rather the absurdly monikered American <A HREF="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0629334" REL="nofollow"/> most famous for the Charlie's Angels films.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-47517468449238181312007-11-02T22:51:00.000+00:002007-11-02T22:51:00.000+00:00Nark, "to act as a police informer", goes back to ...Nark, "to act as a police informer", goes back to 1859 according to the Online Etymology Dictionary.<BR/><BR/>nark. Dictionary.com. Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nark (accessed: November 02, 2007).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-83793422562345090852007-11-02T22:16:00.000+00:002007-11-02T22:16:00.000+00:00As what the (BrE) speaking person might call an "a...As what the (BrE) speaking person might call an "anorak" (AmE)"fanboy" of the Sopranos, I'd say the word I'd use is "snitch" as well as the aforementioned "rat"Dilsnikhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14963518186504018840noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-1791921704022106342007-11-02T20:03:00.000+00:002007-11-02T20:03:00.000+00:00Thanks, Anon. Narc is a good one, and 'chiefly N....Thanks, Anon. <I>Narc</I> is a good one, and 'chiefly N. Amer.' (OED). It comes from well before the 'war on drugs', which I think of happening in the Reagan era. I know it from my earlier-than-Reagan childhood, and OED has it going back to the 1960s.lynneguisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.com