DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

[Stanley]

R4 gave me this one. The root of the word 'vaccination' lies in the Latin word for cow because the first vaccinations by Jenner were using materials whose genesis was cows.....

[Stanley]

I heard a report this morning that use of the phrase 'Chest feeding' as a substitute for 'Breast feeing' in the NHS is to be banned.....
Good grief! I didn't even know it was used...... How bloody stupid can the 'woke' element get?

[Tizer]

There's a lot more terms than just breast feeding that are having to be stopped and in more than just the NHS. These daft alternative terms have been adopted all over the place and it's been shocking over recent years to see so many of our businesses, institutions, universities, government departments etc giving in to Stonewall and other trans promoters and actually paying these promoters thousands of pounds to `train' their staff in `acceptable' terminology.

[Stanley]

Come to think, in the US this coy approach to words has been going on for a long time. Grease nipples became zerks, Chicken breast became 'white meat' and Rape Oil became Canola.

[Big Kev]

I think this fits in here

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[Tripps]

I thnk I prefer 'singularise'.

The One Step
The Magnificent One
Edward Scissorhand
The King
A man for Summer
The Odd One
The Russian is Coming
One Samurai

[Stanley]

Collective nouns have always struck me as being eccentric....
A simple one for you.... The Bird.

[Tizer]

The BBC weather web site was not displaying properly in Firefox this morning but I'm not going to bother trying to tell the BBC because communication with them is so difficult. It's a right palaver!
That triggered me to search for the origin of the word palaver and I found these two comments...
1. Early 18th century (in West Africa, denoting a quarrel or misunderstanding): from Portuguese palavra ‘word’, from Latin parabola ‘comparison’.
2. Palaver, for those of you of an etymological bent, ultimately derives from Portuguese palavra, meaning "word". It was adopted into 18th century sailors' slang as palaver, in the sense of talk or discussion.

[Stanley]

Amazing what you learn from OneGuy.... Thank you Peter!

[Tripps]

A rich seam here - In no particular order all must be connected.

Treasure Island - Come aboard and have a parlay

Stanley Baxter's Parliamo Glasgow

An accumulator bet in America is called a 'parlay' . They call them an Acca here now. For mug punters.

A parabola of course has the equation (y – k)2 = 4a(x – h)

[Tizer]

Parabola? I thought that was a vaccine for preventing Ebola!

[Stanley]

.....but then sometimes One Guy gets downright confusing!

[Stanley]

Just heard on BBC R4.... 'the former Chinese deputy premier has died of a sudden heart attack.'
Is any heart attack ever anything but sudden?

[Tizer]

He will be missed because he was relatively liberal and many Chinese liked him. He got marked down by Xi because he admitted to the Americans that `official' Chinese economic reports weren't any use and he used his own measures instead. His death has worried Xi who has further tightened controls on the media in order to lower the risk of uprisings.

[Tripps]

Whilst nosey parkering around facebook this afternoon - I found the same name but wrong person - I came across the hindi expression "dekho jaldi " which I confirmed means a "quick look". I realised that both words have been used in English.

Jaldi (Jilti) - quick - not so often heard now, more common post WWII from troops that had served in India.

Dekho (decco) Kids' slang for a look "let's have a decco" - common in my childhood.

Aren't words interesting?

[Stanley]

Jildi was common in the Cheshires in the sixties. I have always used decco for have a look. They used bondook as well for rifle and I was told that came down from the Khyber Pass, Badin meant later and I think that came from Egypt.
Only yesterday I was pondering on the difference (if any) between Tatting and crocheting. Does anyone know without looking it up?

[Wendyf]

I think tatting is a complicated process more akin to lace making. I'll look it up now.

[Stanley]

[Tripps]

I came across this sentence today -

" Instead, it acknowledged Israel’s “right to self-defence” while remaining mum on the human rights abuses and war crimes faced by Palestinians in Gaza."

Leaving aside the politics -the use of the word 'mum' seemed odd, and I had to think about it for a moment. . Is it just me?
I associate it with the WWII slogan -
A famous slogan used on public information posters was ‘Keep Mum – she’s not so dumb’. It encouraged people not to gossip or talk about the war effort in case their conversations were overheard by spies. The ‘Careless Talk Cost Lives’ campaign was very successful. It worked because people found the message easy to follow.

I think a similar piece in a British newspaper today,would have used the Yiddish derived word schtum? Perhaps not suitable in the context - though that's probably reading too much into it all (again).

[PanBiker]

Mummers, who visit houses and sweep the hearth in silence. Probably a forgotten corner now, the actual act and the hearth in many properties.

[Stanley]

David, your post chimes with something that struck me last night when I was listening to the news about Gaza.
We have all noted the rise in attacks on Jewish people in the street... I forget the number but in Manchester alone the increase is startling. We are told that this is in response to Jewish actions in Gaza. This highlights something that has troubled me for a long time and I have mentioned it on OG before.
As we all saw in the attacks on the Labour Party because of its 'anti-Semitic' attitudes, there was a confusion between people who criticised the actions of the Israeli government and actual ant-Semites. I have long held that criticisms of the policies of Benjamin Netanyahu and his Right Wing government do not constitute 'anti-Semitism'.
Similarly, the use of Yiddish words in everyday speech should not be criticised on the grounds that (like bombing Gaza) it is Jewish. This is, to use a very old home-grown aphorism, like throwing the baby out with the bath water.....

[Tizer]

I agree with your comments, Stanley. Having been a research scientist I've had many Jewish colleagues and friends because so many had come to Britain to escape Nazis or their parents did so. I always got on with them just as well as I did with all the others of all religions and none. I will never be anti-semitic but I am anti-Netanyahu (and so are many Israelis, even in Israel) and anti-IDF (Israel Defence Force) or more precisely the IDF leaders. I say leaders because fixed-term military service has been compulsory in Israel for both male and females since 1948.

I've always been puzzled by what people mean by anti-semitism. Everyone seems to use it as meaning anti-Jews but the word semite implies Arabs as well as Jews. So someone who is antisemitic must hate both Jews and Arabs unless she/he is more specific.

[Tripps]

Mummers, who visit houses and sweep the hearth in silence

Thanks - Were deep into folk traditions there. I had forgotten that version of the word, and it seems to fit. I associate Mummers usually with The Archers who when I last listened (a long time ago) always did a Mummers play at christmas. They spoke in it but I'm sure it's all the same root.

[Stanley]

I suspect many people would not know what the word means these days. Old traditions gradually die and get forgotten. How long will carol-singing be recognised? I think the only people I hear observing the custom are the Salvation Army and if you are lucky, the local brass band.
The nearest thing we have today to a widely recognised tradition is Black Friday!

[PanBiker]

The nearest thing we have today to a widely recognised tradition is Black Friday!

The only problem we have with that one is that the Friday lasts about six weeks!