DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

[Cathy]

I sometimes suffer from Mother In Laws Curse.

[Stanley]

Is that what you call the cold finger Cathy? In our family 'The Curse of Mary Agnes' (Vera's mother) has always been bad ears...... All three daughters have suffered from it and Margaret and Susan still do.

[Stanley]

Cats 'yowling' in the back street. 'Knee high to a grasshopper'. Both used this morning......

[PanBiker]

Have we done "mense", to mean most of something or a quantity?

[Stanley]

I don't think so. If used in the sense of a monthly discharge of blood I knew about it but haven't used it. I've never heard of it in the sense you use.
A similar but completely different word.... "demesne (n.) c. 1300, demeine, demeyne (modern spelling by late 15c.), "power; dominion; control, possession," senses now obsolete, from Anglo-French demesne, demeine, Old French demaine "land held for a lord's own use," from Latin dominicus "belonging to a master," from dominus "lord, master," from domus "house" (from PIE root *dem- "house, household").
Re-spelled by Anglo-French legal scribes under influence of Old French mesnie "household" (and the concept of a demesne as "land attached to a mansion") and their fondness for inserting -s- before -n-. Essentially the same word as domain.
Meaning "a manor house and near or adjacent land," kept and occupied by the lord and his family, is from late 14c., hence "any landed estate" (late 14c.). Related: Demesnial."
David Drinkall's farm at Paythorne was called Demensne, always pronounced Demense.

[Cathy]

I understand Mother in Laws curse to be when your fingertips get very cold and dry, then the skin cracks and often bleeds. I sometimes suffer from it in Winter, it becomes worse when I am collating at work, especially on my thumb tips.

[Tizer]

Surely mense would come from mensuration?

[Stanley]

Only problem with that in connection with the name of the farm is that it is spelt 'mesne'. But I agree, it should make sense.
Cathy, I have one and have always known it as a Step Mother's Blessing.

[Tizer]

I don't know about farms, I was replying to Ian's question...

Have we done "mense", to mean most of something or a quantity?

[PanBiker]

Sounds like that could be correct Tiz, a lot more likely than the female monthly cycle.

[Stanley]

Another new word crops up as I dig into the monasteries. 'Corrodian' . I went for a furtle and found this:- "Corrodian - lay person who had obtained the right to board and lodging in a monastery, usually by payment of a down payment at an earlier date."
In other words a way of ensuring care in old age.
Another word that has been puzzling me is 'capacity'. Some monks about to be displaced asked for this. I think it means that they wanted a licence to preach or undertake some sort of other function.

[Tripps]

One of my favourite words - Mondegreen - has just been a question on University Challenge.

I must confess to shouting out the answer. The contestants hadn't a clue.

"They have killed the Earl of Moray, and Lady Mondegreen"

[Stanley]

You'll have to explain that one to me David.......

[plaques]

Try this for an explanation. Mondegreen.

[Tripps]

Thanks P.

Here's the last time I mentioned it complete with the music.

Robin Hall - Mondegreen

[Tizer]

Mondegreens...when I read Stanley's word corrodian it conjured up the thought of a monk playing a tune on his corrodian.

[Stanley]

Ah, all becomes clear! That reminds me that for many years I read 'mis-led' as 'meyesled' (My attempt to describe the pronunciation. ) Sort of similar I reckon.... Then of course there is 'Our Father which art in heaven. Harold be thy name'. I always liked that one and used to say Harold every time we were told to recite the Lord's Prayer.... I quite like the idea of God being called Harold......

[plaques]

What was the name of the swagman in Waltzing Matilda?

Answer... Andy. From. And he sang as he sat.....

[Tizer]

Mrs Tiz has always told the story of how as a teenager she was embarrassed by having gone into a record shop and asked for the new Herman's Hermits record `She's a Must to Avoid' when it was really called `She's a Must to a Boy'. I decided to relate this tale when I read the above posts on mondegreens but first I looked up the lyrics of the Herman's Hermits record. Imagine her surprise when I told her that after all these years that she had the right words, not the wrong ones. She'd been labouring under a misapprobation!

There are more Herman's Hermits mondegreens here: LINK Many are replicates but scroll down and you'll find some gems, such as `She's a muscular void'

[Stanley]

"misapprobation" There's a new word for us David!

[Tripps]

"misapprobation" There's a new word for us David!

Peter not David - it's a bit advanced for me.

[Stanley]

No I meant you David, thinking about your delight with tergiversation.....

[Tripps]

Ah I see. Thank you for the thought. I'm a day late and a dollar short - as usual.

[Stanley]

I think about you every time I use the Soy Sauce you gave me.....
On a general note about modern day speech, especially when being interviewed and keeping up a constant gabble so as not to be interrupted..... Have I whinged about the increasing tendency to garble longer words? Parliament becomes pment etc. They must get lessons from someone on 'How to Motor Mouth'! It would surprise me if there weren't people offering courses in interview technique, if so I wish they'd warn people about the use of 'kind of'!

[Cathy]

Does anyone know...
Why do we say 'fall asleep'?
Why do we say 'wake up'?