johnmperry has adopted no words, looked up 0 words, created 2 lists, listed 391 words, written 698 comments, added 0 tags, and loved 2 words.

Comments by johnmperry

  • also aleurophobic, aelurophobic

    July 23, 2008

  • mean, miserly

    unconnected with minge

    July 23, 2008

  • Personally I find this word just as offensive as cunt. But for some reason it is almost freely allowed on BBC television.

    July 23, 2008

  • person (male or female) of low morals

    July 23, 2008

  • a loose woman

    July 23, 2008

  • a female of easy virtue, a tart

    July 23, 2008

  • a bald man

    July 23, 2008

  • coitus from behind

    cf doggy position

    July 23, 2008

  • coitus a tergo

    July 23, 2008

  • One way round this is to have the same password for every service.

    July 23, 2008

  • Internet censorship in China

    (ironically enough, wikipedia was blocked in China for a long time. flickr is half-blocked following distribution of photos from a protest in Xiamen - the new server farms are not included.)

    July 23, 2008

  • A kind of sweet (US candy) in the form of a sphere of confectioners' honeycomb coated in chocolate

    July 23, 2008

  • Usual kind of beer drunk in UK.

    July 23, 2008

  • I use IE and I get delete option after I have edited a comment.

    btw check the difference between alternate and alternative

    July 23, 2008

  • This mark has several common names: 'hash', 'hatch', 'pound sign', and 'octothorp' among them. The name "pound sign" is an Americanism that causes some confusion in countries that use the pound for currency.

    It was also noted that the # is a medieval abbreviation for Latin "numerus" - it is a cursive 'n' with a horizontal slash through it, much modified and abstracted.

    One possible derivation of the name "octothorp" was provided by Charles Bigelow:

    ... old English "thorp" meant 'hamlet' or 'village' (I'm not sure of the difference, except maybe hamlet is smaller, as its apparent diminutive suffix would suggest), and is derived from a much older Indo-European word *treb- for 'dwelling', which turns out to mean 'beam' or 'timber' in Latin "trabs", winding up as "trave" in Anglo-Latin, like "architrave" - the beam resting on a column, or "trab-" as in "trabecula" - a small supporting beam or bar. As Voltaire said, etymology is a science in which the vowels count for nothing and the consonants for very little.

    So, maybe "octothorp" means "8-beams", which makes a kind of sense if we take the 8 projections to be the thorps, or trabs or traves. Though it's only a "quadrathorp" if we think that the beams connect.

    Another explanation has it that the octothorp is a "thorp"' surrounded by eight cultivated fields.

    July 23, 2008

  • UK: the symbol #

    July 23, 2008

  • see hash

    July 23, 2008

  • cf estuarine English

    July 23, 2008

  • Dialect of eastern London and Essex

    July 23, 2008

  • a language created by Dr Marc Okrand, a professional linguist, for use by the alien Klingons in some of the Star Trek movies. To make Klingon sound truly alien, Okrand used combinations of sounds which do not exist in any natural language. It is a complete language, with its own vocabulary, grammar, usage and an enthusiastic community of speakers.

    Klingon alphabet:

    July 22, 2008

  • A native of the planet Qo'noS

    July 22, 2008

  • Klingon homeworld, pronounced Kronos.

    July 22, 2008

  • it's an orthographic change, when forming an adverb from an adjective ending in -y (usually):

    dainty -> daintily

    gay -> gaily

    doesn't always work - silly

    July 22, 2008

  • Whereas Intercourse, Pa welcomes tourists. I picked up a copy of Intercourse News, and a fridge magnet that says "I ♥ Intercourse"

    July 22, 2008

  • cf micturition

    July 22, 2008

  • Type of wax that holds a stone onto a dop stick.

    July 22, 2008

  • A stick or thin pole about a metre in length (three feet) with a ball-shape pad at one end, used as an aid in painting, particularly in oil painting. A mahl stick is useful when painting detail or when painting in a large area where the paint is still wet and you want to avoid touching the surface accidentally.

    July 22, 2008

  • where a jeweller holds a stone to cut it

    July 22, 2008

  • cf largesse

    July 22, 2008

  • also: Sensually attractive; sexy.

    July 22, 2008

  • cf entresol

    July 22, 2008

  • An environmental actvist

    July 22, 2008

  • UK response to statement starting If..

    "If my uncle had tits he'd be my auntie."

    July 22, 2008

  • also see moxie

    July 22, 2008

  • Someone who drinks a lot.

    July 22, 2008

  • UK vernacular. Someone who drinks a lot, a barfly

    July 22, 2008

  • (1) Go away!

    (2) (vt) to annoy

    July 22, 2008

  • UK = angry

    see also piss off

    July 22, 2008

  • US = angry

    UK = drunk

    see also pissed off, piss artist

    July 22, 2008

  • Latin for crossroads

    July 22, 2008

  • Someone with a very limited repertoire

    July 22, 2008

  • April fool

    July 22, 2008

  • "There's no fool like an old fool."

    July 22, 2008

  • (pronounced /gwænʃi:/) Chinese 关系 = connections, relationships

    July 22, 2008

  • It also means to network = to make connections. In Chinese called guanxi

    July 22, 2008

  • Shoulderless, sleeveless tube-like upper garment which wraps the torso (not reaching higher than the armpits). Normally strapless, so tight over the breasts in order to prevent the garment from falling. Usually this is prevented with elastic or jersey-knit.

    July 22, 2008

  • US & Canadian vernacular = television.

    UK vernacular = tube top

    July 22, 2008

  • Mimir's tree

    July 22, 2008

  • Usually refers to Camino Santiago or Way of St James. This has been a major pilgrimage route for many centuries.

    July 22, 2008

  • (pron. /mɔs brɔs/) UK tailoring chain. Particularly well known for hiring out formal suits, e.g. morning suits for weddings and race days.

    July 22, 2008

  • Also: abbreviation for brothers. So UK popular culture gives us Moss Bros, a chain of tailor's shops famous for hiring out morning suits for weddings and race days.

    July 22, 2008

  • Also: (vi) overdose

    July 22, 2008

  • Well if we're talking weird sandwich fillings:

    My best friends parents told me that when they were courting (in wartime), one time he arrived with a steak-and-kidney pudding sandwich.

    Me, I like avocado and bacon, or just avocado on its own; cheese is magical though - not usually available in China though, so when I'm back in UK for the summer, I usually od on cheese. Also bread in all its forms. And chocolate!

    July 22, 2008

  • A beef stock cube

    July 22, 2008

  • "Can those at the back hear me?"

    July 22, 2008

  • UK vernacular: (1) a mistake; (2) bosom

    I find it unsatisfactory to describe breasts as a mistake!

    July 22, 2008

  • UK vernacular: plastic surgery on the breasts (boobs)

    July 22, 2008

  • "Ee bah gum" is something they say in Yorkshire.

    July 21, 2008

  • cf tosh

    July 21, 2008

  • "Teasers are usually rich kids with nothing to do. They cruise around looking for planets that haven't made interstellar contact yet and buzz them (ie: they find some isolated spot with very few people around, then land right by some poor unsuspecting soul whom no one's ever going to believe and then strut up and down in front of him wearing silly antennas on their head and making "beep beep" noises) Rather childish, really."

    July 21, 2008

  • = Little Green Men. One theory of Earth's formation.

    July 21, 2008

  • The original joke was "Eats, roots, shoots, and leaves."

    July 21, 2008

  • Means anti-cyclone, so good weather in summer.

    July 21, 2008

  • From my schooldays:

    King Charles I walked and talked half an hour after his head was cut off.

    ->

    King Charles I walked and talked. Half an hour after his head was cut off.

    July 21, 2008

  • see pique-a-boo

    July 21, 2008

  • What a fed up Jack-in-a-box says

    July 21, 2008

  • disgruntled

    July 21, 2008

  • A child's toy, where a figure springs out of a box when the lid is unfastened.

    July 21, 2008

  • The Elder Futhark (or Elder Fuþark, Older Futhark, Old Futhark) is the oldest form of the runic alphabet

    July 21, 2008

  • July 21, 2008

  • also see younger futhark

    July 21, 2008

  • see futhark

    July 21, 2008

  • also fuþark

    July 21, 2008

  • The Younger Futhark, also called the Scandinavian runes, is a runic alphabet, a reduced form of the Elder Futhark, consisting of only 16 characters, in use from ca. 800 CE.

    July 21, 2008

  • Celtic tree alphabet:

    vowels
    consonants

    July 21, 2008

  • objects made of wood

    July 21, 2008

  • "It's gone tits up" implies "it's dead". cf belly up

    July 21, 2008

  • UK vernacular: "it's gone tits up"

    July 21, 2008

  • not to be confused with babouche, which is the other end of the body!

    July 21, 2008

  • traditional Turkish heeled slipper of fabric or leather richly decorated with beads, threads and spangles and with a turned up, pointed toe.

    a French version of the Arabic babuj, which in turn derives from the Persian papus, meaning foot covering

    July 21, 2008

  • How does one come across orphaned non-words? Presumably Mia typoed a word search.

    July 21, 2008

  • International Workers of the World, or IWW, was also referred to as "I Won't Work

    July 21, 2008

  • A matryoshka doll or a Russian nested doll, also called a stacking doll or Babooshka doll, is a set of dolls of decreasing sizes placed one inside the other. "Matryoshka" is a derivative of the Russian female first name "Matryona", which is traditionally associated with a fat, robust Russian woman.

    July 21, 2008

  • also, sometimes babooshka

    July 21, 2008

  • Those nesting wooden dolls one sees are often called babushka dolls. Wikipedia calls them Matryoshka dolls.

    July 21, 2008

  • cf wag

    July 21, 2008

  • UK vernacular = wives and girlfriends

    July 21, 2008

  • traditional Scottish dance

    July 21, 2008

  • get one's hackles up = anger, esp. when aroused in a challenging or challenged manner

    July 21, 2008

  • I can remember listening to a cricket commentary on the radio. Clive Rice (South African) was bowling and there was someone with an Irish name batting. The commentator, John Arlott, said "Rice bowls and Paddy fields."

    PS usually padi field. (Usual in my house).

    July 21, 2008

  • Large champagne bottle (36 standard bottles)

    July 20, 2008

  • Large champagne bottle (40 standard bottles)

    July 20, 2008

  • Large champagne bottle (24 standard bottles)

    July 20, 2008

  • Large champagne bottle (12 standard bottles)

    July 20, 2008

  • Large champagne bottle (8 standard bottles)

    July 20, 2008

  • Large champagne bottle (6 standard bottles)

    July 20, 2008

  • The reason why biblical names were chosen for these larger sizes is unknown. The term Jeroboam appears to have been used in Bordeaux from around 1725. Adopted in Champagne, the other bottles were probably named simply by analogy with the first in the series. Jeroboam was the founder and first king of the kingdom of Israel at the beginning of the first millennium before Christ. It is curious to note that Eustache Deschamps lists Jeroboam, Roboan (Roboam or Rehoboam) and Balthazar in his Balade MCCXLIX. As for the explanation of why Jeroboam was chosen by the wine-makers of Bordeaux, perhaps the answer lies in the Bible, in which Jeroboam is described as a man of great value; a jeroboam of Château Latour is undoubtedly a bottle of great value!- UNION of CHAMPAGNE HOUSES

    Biblical champagne bottle sizes:

    Jeroboam (Founder and first king of Israel, 931-910 BC)

    Rehoboam, son of Solomon (King of Judah, 922-908 BC)

    Methuselah (Biblical patriarch who lived to the age of 969)

    Salmanazar (King of Assyria, 859-824 BC)

    Balthazar (Regent of Babylon, son of Nabonide, 539BC)

    Nebuchadnezzar (King of Babylon, 605-562 BC).

    Other sizes:

    Melchior

    Solomon

    Primat

    Melchizedek

    July 20, 2008

  • It's usually soubriquet in my house!

    July 20, 2008

  • more usually callipygean, sometimes callipygous.

    = beautifully buttocked

    July 20, 2008

  • usually soubriquet

    July 20, 2008

  • Yes. Sorry, I try not to waste my enire life here. So I put in my two penn'orth then go away and do something else. Then come back to see wassup.

    As plethora correctly interpreted, you had written a statement of the form 'a was worse than b', implying that b was bad. I asked how b was bad.

    July 20, 2008

  • = penny worth, worth one penny

    July 20, 2008

  • Indonesian kebab, i.e. chunks of food cooked on a stick

    July 20, 2008

  • peanut butter + anything = barf! Peanut butter itself is pretty barf too, except as a base for making satay sauce.

    July 20, 2008

  • There's a whole mountain of non-tosh books out there I haven't read yet. And that's just the ones I might be inclined to read. There's an Andean range of those I'm not going to waste any time on.

    July 20, 2008

  • A large champagne bottle, 4 - 6 regular bottles or 3 - 4½ litres (140 - 210 oz = 7 - 10½ imperial pints, 8¾ - 13-and-a-bit US pints)

    July 20, 2008

  • Why is coitus interruptus bad that something can be worse than it?

    July 20, 2008

  • Marmite on toast is delicious, elthough it does have to be spread very thinly. Babies love it on toast fingers and they go num-num. UK babies that is.

    But peanut butter and jelly? Yuk! Who could think of such an abomination?

    July 20, 2008

  • In the IPA it's the symbol �?

    July 20, 2008

  • French, means 'look here', i.e. 'here it is' (or 'here they are')

    July 20, 2008

  • To delete a comment:

    First of all edit it, to reduce it to e.g. one letter.

    Then after you press the edit button, you are offered a chance to delete. When you select that, you are asked to confirm.

    Et voilà

    July 20, 2008

  • means 'look there', i.e. 'there it is' or 'there they are'. Cf voici

    July 20, 2008

  • Should be voilà

    Pronounced vwa-la. Means 'Look there' cf voici

    July 20, 2008

  • Here's one I saw the other day: gourmet burger

    July 20, 2008

  • Something seemingly innocently spoken, but with a second (rude) meaning.

    A woman went into a bar and asked for a double entendre, so the barman gave her one.

    July 20, 2008

  • cf litotes

    July 20, 2008

  • coitus interruptus: And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother.

    July 20, 2008

  • first definition is exactly the same as for peer

    July 20, 2008

  • factoid

    July 20, 2008

  • (Proprietary) name of powdered gravy

    July 20, 2008

  • a stock for making gravy

    July 20, 2008

  • Yesterday upon the stair

    I met a man who was not there.

    He was not there again today.

    Oh how I wish he'd go away.

    William Hughes Mearns, better known as Hughes Mearns (1875-1965)

    July 20, 2008

  • Its major property was that it had negative mass.

    July 20, 2008

  • Takes one to know one, yarb

    July 20, 2008

  • Here

    July 20, 2008

  • electronic auction for silicon implants

    July 20, 2008

  • I repeat that this is a completely invented condition. Or if it is a real condition, it is rare but being mis-applied in order to qualify for state help.

    Cf SAD

    I am in classrooms every school day.

    I neither know nor care who Augusten Burroughs is. How does his brother have a different surname?

    July 19, 2008

  • Seasonal Affective Disorder. An acronym which started life as a joke but now is being taken seriously. Seriously that is only by pseudo-scientists, quacks and other charlatans.

    July 19, 2008

  • Bovril might be similar looking but it isn't a substitute. Marmite and its imitators are strictly vegetable based, whereas Bovril is beef. In addition Marmite is spread on bread, toast, etc. whereas Bovril is usually made into a drink

    July 19, 2008

  • Excellent on hot buttered crumpets, as is honey. But not in combination!

    July 19, 2008

  • As far as I can tell, approximately half the population, i.e. all males, display symptoms of this. In other words, a meaningless condition invented by pseuds to justify their salary.

    July 19, 2008

  • = I hear what you said but ...

    July 19, 2008

  • Branston Pickle is made from a variety of diced vegetables, including swede (rutabaga), onions, cauliflower and gherkins pickled in a sauce made from vinegar, tomato, apple and dates with spices such as mustard, coriander, garlic, cinnamon, pepper, cloves, nutmeg and cayenne pepper.

    Branston Pickle is sweet and spicy with a chutney-like consistency, containing small chunks of vegetables in a thick brown sticky sauce. It is commonly served as part of a ploughman's lunch, a once common menu item in British pubs. It is also frequently combined with cheddar cheese in sandwiches, and most sandwich shops in the UK offer "cheese and pickle" as an option.

    'nuff said?

    July 19, 2008

  • Just had my lunch - cheese & marmite sandwiches, also corned beef and branston pickle

    Delicious. Can't get that in China! In fact can hardly even get bread.

    July 19, 2008

  • see gravlax

    July 19, 2008

  • see gravlax

    July 19, 2008

  • Mid-20th century. (Swedish or Norwegian gravlaks) "buried salmon", because originally cured in a hole in the ground.

    In UK/US usually means thin slices of dried salmon marinated in sugar, salt, pepper, and herbs, especially dill.

    Also gravelax, gravadlax

    July 19, 2008

  • sod = sodomite

    July 19, 2008

  • I guess most words ending -gh fill the bill

    July 19, 2008

  • Brewer's Dictionary of phrase and fable, giving the derivation, source, or origin of common phrases, allusions, and words that have a tale to tell.

    July 19, 2008

  • also E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898 et seq.

    Thus: according to Brewer

    July 19, 2008

  • The reply made to the teller of stale news.

    July 19, 2008

  • UK = plough

    July 19, 2008

  • How many words? Zillions and squillions.

    July 19, 2008

  • somewhat like zillion

    July 19, 2008

  • telly - UK vernacular for television

    July 19, 2008

  • Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

    July 19, 2008

  • Here the TV says Reeko or Rick-o:

    Riccardo Ricco

    was fingered by a medico

    turned out he was dealing

    while most of his team were only wheeling

    July 19, 2008

  • a fat person

    July 19, 2008

  • IE7

    bridgework may be a good word but it's not 10 different letters

    July 18, 2008

  • Will this help meanwhile?

    July 18, 2008

  • Re: your comment to me

    That's what I figured. I think it's used by some shopkeepers to put the price tags on items without the customers knowing what the price is. I also think a similar mechanism is used by Microsoft to generate its code numbers for software.

    You still need to get rid of bridgework and goldfinger though.

    And this list has a chunk of (unbounded) html at the top.

    July 18, 2008

  • Yes, except Peter Pan isn't strictly speaking a pantomime, having been written in the early 1900s.

    July 18, 2008

  • Marmite is delicious. Babies love it. Love it? Hate It?

    July 18, 2008

  • one of the major characters in The Goon Show

    July 18, 2008

  • Radio comedy programme, first broadcast by BBC from 1951 to 1960. Can still be heard today on BBC7

      Principal characters included:
    • Neddie Seagoon, played by Harry Secombe
    • Eccles, Minnie Bannister & Count Jim Moriarty, played by Spike Milligan
    • Major Bloodnok, Hercules Grytpype-Thynne, Bluebottle & Henry Crun, played by Peter Sellers
    Michael Bentine also appeared in early shows

    July 18, 2008

  • cf Polyhymnia

    July 18, 2008

  • One of the nine muses

    July 18, 2008

  • The nine muses are:

    • Calliope (the 'beautiful of speech'): chief of the muses and muse of epic or heroic poetry
    • Clio (the 'glorious one'): muse of history
    • Erato (the 'amorous one'): muse of love or erotic poetry, lyrics, and marriage songs
    • Euterpe (the 'well-pleasing'): muse of music and lyric poetry
    • Melpomene (the 'chanting one'): muse of tragedy
    • Polyhymnia or Polymnia (the 'singer of many hymns'): muse of sacred song, oratory, lyric, singing and rhetoric
    • Terpsichore (the 'one who delights in dance'): muse of choral song and dance
    • Thalia (the 'blossoming one'): muse of comedy and bucolic poetry
    • Urania (the 'celestial one'): muse of astronomy

    July 18, 2008

  • In pantomime, a principal boy role is the young male protagonist of the play, traditionally played by a young actress in boy's clothes.

    July 18, 2008

  • In the pantomime tradition, Aladdin is played by a girl (principal boy).

    July 18, 2008

  • Widow Twankey first occurs in 1861, the character runs a Chinese laundry in Peking, China and is a pantomime dame; that is always played by a man. One of her sons, Aladdin, is the hero of the pantomime, while her other son, often named Wishy Washy (or Wishee Washee)(or Wishy-washy), just helps in the laundry. She is not pivotal in the plot (such as it is), but more a source of interaction with the audience through jokes and innuendo — mostly centred on items of underwear on the washing line.

    July 18, 2008

  • also

    In typesetting, a widow is the last line of a paragraph printed by itself at the top of a page.

    cf orphan

    July 18, 2008

  • A widow's peak (widow's brow) is a descending -shaped point in the middle of the hairline (above the forehead).

    Men can get it too, although this is more a later life thing, more likely due to receding temples.

    July 18, 2008

  • Plenty of other uses, mostly contemporary. Synonymous with "fatally dangerous".

    wikipedia includes:

    • nickname for a left anterior descending artery stenosis
    • In forestry, any loose overhead debris such as limbs or tree tops that may fall at any time
    • The Luftwaffe nickname (in German) for the F-104 Starfighter warplane
    • The Lead Round Nose (LRN) version of .38 special ammunition
    • The B-26 medium bomber in WWII
    • The H3 Kawasaki triple motorbike
    • The Stoner Rifle SR-25K "Widowmaker" SOPMOD Carbine

    July 18, 2008

  • The Major Arcana are the trumps of Tarot cards;

    the Minor Arcana are the numbered pip Tarot cards

    July 18, 2008

  • different case endings for illegitimi are used.

    The basic saying "nil carborundum" is thought to have originated during WW2. Obviously it can't predate the first synthesis of carborundum.

    July 18, 2008

  • a crystalline form of aluminium oxide and one of the rock-forming minerals. It is naturally clear, but can have different colors when impurities are present.

    July 18, 2008

  • The material was manufactured by Edward Goodrich Acheson around 1893, and he not only developed the electric batch furnace by which SiC is still made today but also formed The Carborundum Company to manufacture it in bulk, initially for use as an abrasive.

    Carborundum is not a Latin word. The ending -undum suggests either a Latin gerund or gerundive form—and the idea of obligation ("Don't let ...") is more suggestive of the gerundive—but the word is actually a portmanteau of "carbon" (from Latin), and "corundum".

    July 18, 2008

  • Mock-Latin: nil carborundum illegitimorum = don't let the bastards grind you down

    July 18, 2008

  • The last farthings were minted in Britain in 1957 and ceased to be legal tender in 1960. In fact their buying power was limited well before, and few were in general circulation.

    July 17, 2008

  • July 17, 2008

  • Before decimalisation in UK (15-2-1971) currency used was pounds, shillings and pence.

    Abbreviation: d

    12d = 1 shilling; 20 shillings = £1

    240d = £1

    Penny is also US vernacular for one-cent coin

    July 17, 2008

  • A Victorian bicycle, named after its appearance: one very large leading wheel (like a pre-decimal penny), and a very small trailing wheel (like a farthing). Pedals were attached directly to the leading wheel. It was large because bicycle gears had not yet been invented.

    July 17, 2008

  • = ½ pence

    July 17, 2008

  • = pennies (plural of penny)

    July 17, 2008

  • = two pence

    July 17, 2008

  • UK vernacular

    July 17, 2008

  • The Knocker-Up

    A pal of mine once said to me,

    Will you knock me up at half-past three?"

    And so promptly at half-past one,

    I knocked him up and said, "O John,

    I've just come round to tell ya

    I've just come round to tell ya,

    I've just come round to tell ya,

    You've got two more hours to sleep!"

    - to the tune of "So Early in the Morning". In the days before alarm clocks, working people often had someone with

    a long pole come and knock on their window to wake them up

    for (shift) work. This person was called a "knocker up."

    July 17, 2008

  • ...and then there was the knocker-ups. Well we had a bloke in our street, he lived at the bottom end of the street, now he was the knocker-up. You know what a knocker-up is? Well he had a big long pole and he had wires fastened to it at the top and he used to go round to these houses and he used to rattle on the window with these wires, you know, until he got an answer and then he used to go and do that. Well he'd only get about tuppence or threepence a week for doing that, you know.

    July 17, 2008

  • also (v) to wake someone up (early). See knocker-up

    July 17, 2008

  • also (v.t.) to impregnate (7th definition, = to make pregnant)

    July 17, 2008

  • It's at the speed of light even if it's through copper wire, isn't it? 1 metre ≅ 1 nanosecond

    July 17, 2008

  • It's French for stockpot.

    - look at the picture on the label

    July 17, 2008

  • (v) to acknowledge, admit, concede, confess, own up

    July 17, 2008

  • What an Aussie chunders into. Or cries "Ruth".

    July 17, 2008

  • cf yoni

    July 17, 2008

  • cf danda

    July 17, 2008

  • In the Devan�?garī script, the danda (दंड daṃ�?a, lit. stick) is a punctuation character. The glyph consists of a single vertical stroke (।). The character can be found at code point U+0964 (।) in Unicode and at 0xEA in ISCII.

    In Devan�?garī the danda marks the end of a sentence or period, a function which it shares with the full stop (period) in many written languages based on the Latin, Cyrillic, or Greek alphabets.

    The word danda is also a colloquialism for penis (c.f. lingam).

    July 17, 2008

  • ... When the yoni is pressed by the lingam for a long time, it is called 'pressing' ...

    July 17, 2008

  • The yoni (Sanskrit योिन yoni) is the Sanskrit word for "divine passage", "place of birth", "womb" (more as nature as a womb and cradle of all creations) or "sacred temple" (cf. lila).

    Also has a wider meaning in both profane and spiritual contexts, covering a range of meanings of "place of birth, source, origin, spring, fountain, place of rest, repository, receptacle, seat, abode, home, lair, nest, stable" (Monier-Williams).

    The yoni is also considered to be symbolic of Shakti or other goddesses of a similar nature.

    In classical texts such as Kama Sutra, yoni refers to vagina.

    ...

    July 17, 2008

  • ... When the yoni is pressed by the lingam for a long time, it is called 'pressing' ...

    July 17, 2008

  • The Lingam (also, Linga, Shiva linga Sanskrit लिङ�?गं liṅgaṃ, meaning "mark," or "sign,") is a symbol for the worship of the Hindu god Shiva. While its origins are debated, the use of this symbol for worship is an ancient tradition in India extending back at least to the early Indus Valley civilization.

    July 17, 2008

  • also

    (n) UK vernacular for good-looking female

    July 17, 2008

  • (I think that quote readsa whole lot better if you insert a mental comma after Thither full

    July 17, 2008

  • And the citation:1671: And Waggons fraught with Utensils of War. to me has a strictly literal meaning - loaded with.

    July 16, 2008

  • Another bizarre definition. Isn't something missing? viz. third person singular nominative pronoun.

    July 16, 2008

  • I wonder what a "full-fraught pincushion" is. How it's both full and fraught, and with what?

    "Fraughted" is interesting, because it seems like it should have been fraughtened.

    July 16, 2008

  • "Epigram--Divine Service In The Kirk Of Lamington" -

    Poems and Songs of Robert Burns, 1791

    July 16, 2008

  • Etymology suggest two different sources:

    Middle English 'fraughten'

    Middle Dutch 'vrachten'

    July 16, 2008

  • How can "fraught with danger" not mean "filled with danger".

    "Common and standard" doesn't mean "correct". But where/when does incorrect become correct? I often hear people on tv saying "between you and I" but that can't ever be correct, however common it is.

    July 16, 2008

  • v. remove dead blooms from flowers

    July 16, 2008

  • Oblomov (Russian: Обломов) is the best known novel by Russian writer Ivan Goncharov, first published in 1859.

    "Son of Oblomov" was a 1964 stage play by and with Spike Milligan

    July 16, 2008

  • frequently misused, because it sounds like 'taut'. Actually means "full". If adjectives could be classified as transitive and intransitive, then this would be intransitive, in that it needs to be followed by a preposition (with).

    Middle English, past participle of obsolete verb fraughten, to load. Cf freight

    July 16, 2008

  • Very bizarre definitions here: only one is an actual definition, the other three describe its properties.

    July 16, 2008

  • Isn't that what the Boss Button is for?

    July 16, 2008

  • Yeah. The first time I saw Bride and Prejudice I was very anti. But once I'd thought about it some more, I thought it was great, in its own way.

    July 16, 2008

  • Jailbait is a slang term for a sexually desirable person who has not yet reached the age of consent.

    July 16, 2008

  • July 16, 2008

  • a. Having the nerves, or veins, placed in apparent disorder.

    July 16, 2008

  • a. Crying like a child.

    July 16, 2008

  • Famous UK patent medicine

    July 16, 2008

  • John Collis Browne, famous for his chlorodyne, now sold as "mixture", because legislation has removed some of its original ingredients (such as cannabis).

    July 16, 2008

  • There used to be (? still is) a computer manufacturer called Nixdorf.

    July 16, 2008

  • Teaching English as a Second or Other Language.

    July 16, 2008

  • Teaching efl

    July 16, 2008

  • English as a Foreign Language

    July 16, 2008

  • Term from teaching (EFL for instance), meaning actual real-world material brought into the classroom.

    July 16, 2008

    1. Australia/Australian
    2. unit of weight
      • Troy (31.1034768 grams) named from the city of Troyes in the Champagne area of France,
      • Avoirdupois (28.349523125 grams)
      • Other
    3. The Snow Leopard (Uncia uncia)

    July 16, 2008

  • A kind of cake. I don't like coconut, or it doesn't like me.

    Seems to be an Oz thing.

    July 16, 2008

  • Lots of words which might have "usual" spelling to you rolig are "unusual" to me.

    July 16, 2008

  • also a name for ocarina

    July 15, 2008

  • different from trout pout

    July 15, 2008

  • In fact a disaster, from over-injecting whatever it is. Silicon? Collagen?

    Most famous case is that of British TV actress Lesley Ash

    July 15, 2008

  • Chinese pinyin for 69 - all meanings

    July 15, 2008

  • n.

    1. A pathological stony mass formed in the stomach; gastric calculus.
    2. A small stone found in the stomach of some reptiles, fish, and birds that aids in digestion by helping grind ingested food material.

    July 15, 2008

  • adj. Belonging to or written in an uncial cursive alphabet attributed to Saint Cyril, formerly used in the writing of various Slavic languages but now limited to the Catholic liturgical books used by some communities along the Dalmatian coast; in other words, Old Cyrillic.

    ... whatever .. I just like the sound this word makes

    July 15, 2008

  • Not only have I not read any Harry Potter - they're for kids - I haven't read any Lord of the Rings either. Whoever they're for, it's not me.

    Nor seen any of the films either

    July 15, 2008

  • "I shifted the letters halfway in the alphabet, with wrap-around" = ROT13

    July 15, 2008

  • Gordon Bennett also instituted a series of sporting events to promote his newspapers. In particular a series of balloon races. The race of 1923 ended in disaster, with 5 of 17 competitors dead from wind, rain or high-altitude snow.

    http://www.vectorsite.net/avbloon_2.html

    July 15, 2008

  • In UK it's another vernacular name for semen.

    July 14, 2008

  • v. what butlers do. Probably a back-formation.

    July 14, 2008

  • Chinese = wind & water

    pronounced "fong shway"

    A superstitious practice of ensuring good fortune to a house by placing the furniture and fittings at appropriate positions.

    July 14, 2008

  • Actually "lingerie" is rhymed with "holiday" only by those who don't know how to pronounce it. And "feng shui" isn't English as such, it's pinyin, hence the pronunciation - "fong shway". So it is correct to rhyme it with "cachet". Or "holiday", if we want an English word.

    July 14, 2008

  • My Dad is a train driver

    July 14, 2008

  • A bomber who knowingly includes himself in the target, better to maximise carnage

    July 14, 2008

  • No, it's more to do with using a conventional army to tackle suicide bombers etc.

    July 14, 2008

  • = "dragon eyes" in Chinese

    July 14, 2008

  • Arsole, rarely called arsenole, is a chemical compound of the formula C4H5As. The structure is isoelectronic to that of pyrrole except that an arsenic atom is substituted for the nitrogen atom and that arsole is only mildly aromatic. Arsole itself does exist but is rarely found in its pure form. Several substituted analogs called arsoles also exist.

    When arsole is fused to a benzene ring, this molecule is called benzarsole.

    - as opposed to Ben's ... (which may be more than mildly aromatic!)

    July 13, 2008

  • "Siderology: The Science of Iron; the Constitution of Iron Alloys and Slags" by Hanns von Jüptner (1902)

    July 13, 2008

  • an iron used to press pleats and ridges

    July 13, 2008

  • ornithologist or bird-watcher

    A story from the late Humphrey Lyttelton, himself a bird-watcher: he gave a lift in his car once to a man who called himself an "orthinologist". He just wished he'd had the wit at the time to call him a word-botcher.

    July 13, 2008

  • Museum

    July 11, 2008

  • = condom

    July 11, 2008

  • Cape Gooseberry

    July 11, 2008

  • imperial

    sideboards

    June 30, 2008

  • same as sideburns

    June 30, 2008

  • ding-a-ling

    althing

    June 30, 2008

  • Street in Kensington, London. Home of Harrods. Name distinguished by having six consecutive consonants.

    June 30, 2008

  • Town in Lincolnshire, UK which has a name comprising ten different non-repeated letters

    June 30, 2008

  • Anti-

    Social

    Behaviour

    Order

    June 30, 2008

  • Can't be that incomparable, I can't even remember it! I remember most of them, but that one not.

    June 26, 2008

  • Pretentious? Moi?

    - great line from Eddie Murphy

    June 26, 2008

  • Italian = pick yourself up

    June 26, 2008

  • Plenty more Chinglish signs in China.

    June 26, 2008

  • Been there, seen it, done it.

    June 26, 2008

  • Sephirot or "enumerations", Sephiroth, Sefiroth (סְפִירוֹת), singular: Sephirah, also Sefirah (סְפִירָה "enumeration" in Hebrew), in the qabbalah of Judaism, are the ten attributes that God (who is referred to as �?ור �?ין סוף Aur Ain Soph, "Limitless Light, Light Without End") created through which he can manifest not only in the physical but the metaphysical universe.

    June 24, 2008

  • also kabbalah

    June 24, 2008

  • Kitsch in every dimension.

    June 24, 2008

  • An annual song conest organised by Eurovision. Watched by millions, derided by even more millions (many of whom also watch for the sheer kitschery).

    June 24, 2008

  • European television union. A fairly loose definition of Europe which includes Israel, Turkey and Russia.

    June 24, 2008

  • Also the name of the group representing Israel at Eurovision Song Contest 2008

    June 24, 2008

  • for explanation, see Boaz

    June 24, 2008

  • Part of the ritual of freemasomry.

    Quoted from Manly P. Hall's "Secret Teachings of all Ages" p.307-8

    "The right Tablet of the law (Moses' Decalogue) further signifies Jachin-the white pillar of light; the left Tablet, Boaz-the shadowy pillar of darkness. These were the names of the two pillars cast from brass set up on the porch of King Solomon's Temple...On top of each pillar was a large bowl-now erroneously called a ball or globe-one of the bowls probably containing fire and the other water. The celestial globe (originally the bowl of fire), surmounting the right-hand column (Jachin), symbolized the divine man; the terrestrial globe (the bowl of water), surmounting the left-hand column (Boaz), signified the earthly man. These two pillars respectively connote also the active and the passive expressions of Divine Energy, the Sun and the Moon, sulphur and salt, good and bad, light and darkness. Between them is the Sanctuary they are a reminder that Jehovah is both an androgynous and an anthropomorphic deity. As two parallel columns they denote the zodiacal signs of Cancer and Capricorn, which were formerly placed in the chamber of initiation to represent birth and death-the extremes of physical life. They accordingly signify the summer and winter solstices, now known to Freemasons under the comparatively modern appellation of the "two St. Johns...In the mysterious Sephirothic Tree of the Jews, these two pillars symbolize Mercy (Jachin) and Serverity (Boaz). Standing before the gate of King Solomon's Temple, these columns had the same symbolic import as the obelisks before the sanctuaries of Egypt. When interpreted Qabbalistically, the names of the two pillars mean 'In strength shall My House be established.'"

    June 24, 2008

  • Dramatis personae of War & Peace, indeed any Russian novel, such as Dr Zhivago. I had to mentally substitute Bert, Fred atc. in order to get to end of the book.

    June 24, 2008

  • Dramatis personæ is a Latin phrase (literally 'the masks of the drama') used to refer collectively to the characters in a dramatic work—-commonly employed in various forms of theatre, and also on screen.

    June 24, 2008

  • The koteka, horim, or penis sheath is a phallocrypt or phallocarp traditionally worn by native male inhabitants of some (mainly highland) ethnic groups in western New Guinea to cover their genitals.

    June 23, 2008

  • is that the same as synopsis? and what is fablious?

    June 23, 2008

  • = make fun of

    June 23, 2008

  • Well initially I thought maybe an obsolete past participle of kiss, (cf burn-burned/burnt).

    Then I thought it might be a chest, of the blanket storage variety.

    The citation didn't help me, and I don't see it in any online dictionary. So maybe it's a nonce-word.

    Either way, I think the citation should enlighten rather than obscure.

    Who is this Peter Reading anyway?

    June 23, 2008

  • Critical mass

    is clearly unable

    to save As

    ativum

    from the Tower of Babel

    June 23, 2008

  • the minimum amount needed to sustain a process

    June 23, 2008

  • a big dinner plate. Hence trencherman

    June 23, 2008

  • means cutting - able to scythe through

    June 23, 2008

  • means biting

    June 23, 2008

  • similar to mordant

    June 23, 2008

  • the eponymous hero of a series of 19 children's illustrated books written by Kathleen Hale between 1938 and 1972.

    June 23, 2008

  • A Disney amusement park, part of Disneyworld in Orlando,Fl.

    Experimental

    Prototype

    City

    Of

    Tomorrow

    June 23, 2008

  • Here is Disneyworld

    June 23, 2008

  • Citations are all very well, but what does it mean?

    June 23, 2008

  • Kibbled means like broken biscuits. Difficult to do with swedes.

    June 23, 2008

  • The famous Kibble Palace in the Botanic Gardens is probably one of Glasgow's best-loved buildings.

    June 23, 2008

  • interesting how definition of snorkel differs

    June 23, 2008

  • technique in electroplating. I don't know about an oxide coat, It's usually a molecular layer of pure metal.

    June 23, 2008

  • I don't think we should rewrite the entire dictionary of human activity just to satisfy some sodding pc dworkin-clone

    June 22, 2008

  • diminutive?

    June 22, 2008

  • Association football

    ...soc...

    June 22, 2008

  • Derived from the days when women were allowed to live in naval ships. The ‘son-of-a-gun’ was one born in a ship, often in the greater space near the midship gun, behind a canvas screen. If paternity was uncertain, the child was entered in the ship’s log as a “Son-of-a-gun.�?

    June 22, 2008

  • Naval slang for a midshipman, allegedly from the habit of wiping their noses on their sleeves - it is said that the three brass buttons on their jackets are there to prevent them doing this.

    June 22, 2008

  • (n) Coarse broken flax or hemp fiber prepared for spinning.

    Hence tow rag

    June 22, 2008

  • A wastrel; someone beneath contempt.(Incorrectly spelled ‘toe-rag’ in modern English). A tow-rag was a rag made of ‘tow’, or hemp, used to

    staunch wounds by naval surgeons and then thrown away.

    June 22, 2008

  • cf subfusc

    June 22, 2008

  • Not to be confused with Peoria, Az

    June 22, 2008

  • Here are some good ones to choose from.

    Somebody sent me this link the other day. Or one like it.

    June 22, 2008

  • The saying, "Will it play in Peoria?" is traditionally used to ask whether a given product, person, promotional theme or event will appeal to mainstream (also called "Main Street") America, or across a broad range of demographic/psychographic groups. The phrase originated during the vaudeville era and was popularized in movies by Groucho Marx. The belief was that if a new show was successful in Peoria, a main Midwestern stop for vaudeville acts, it would be successful anywhere. The phrase subsequently was adopted by politicians, pollsters and promoters to question the potential mainstream acceptance of anything new.

    -

    cf the man on the Clapham omnibus

    June 22, 2008

  • In the United States, Peoria, Illinois, has legendary status as a test market. Peoria has long been seen as a representation of the average American city, because of its demographics and its perceived mainstream Midwestern culture. In the 1960s and 1970s, Peoria was deemed an ideal test market by various consumer-focused companies, entertainment enterprises (films and concert tours), even politicians, to gauge opinion, interest and receptivity to new products, services and campaigns.

    - wikipedia

    June 22, 2008

  • an ordinary person = Joe Q Public

    man on the Clapham omnibus is a descriptive formulation of a reasonably educated and intelligent but non-specialist person — a reasonable man, a hypothetical person against whom a defendant's conduct might be judged in an English law civil action for negligence. This standard of care comparable to that which might be exercised by "the man on the Clapham omnibus" was first mentioned by Greer LJ in Hall v. Brooklands Auto-Racing Club (1933) 1 KB 205.

    The first reported legal quotation of the phrase is in the case of McQuire v. Western Morning News [›1903 2 KB 100 (CA) at 109 per Collins MR, a libel case, in which Sir Richard Henn Collins MR attributes it to Lord Bowen, who had died nine years earlier

    - wikipedia

    June 22, 2008

  • London district on the south bank of the Thames

    June 22, 2008

  • -ette suggests this is a small one. A full-sized one ought to be an oublie?

    June 22, 2008

  • 4077 MASH was a unit within the purview of I Corps

    June 22, 2008

  • Mobile Army Surgical Hospital

    June 22, 2008

  • No, I think it's the opposite. Symbiosis is the case where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

    June 22, 2008

  • rara skirt

    June 22, 2008

  • a short full skirt usually layered or with rows of frills, popular in the 1980s

    Because in a style originally worn by cheerleaders

    June 22, 2008

  • adj. of bathos

    June 22, 2008

  • full of bathos

    June 22, 2008

  • from the sublime to the ridiculous

    June 22, 2008

  • a native of brummagem really.

    June 22, 2008

  • dialect and accent of a brummie

    June 22, 2008

  • Why is the head definition for this word the opposite of the head definition for its adjective, symbiotic?

    June 22, 2008

  • In my mind defenestration is inexorably linked with Prague like boiled bacon and pease pudding

    June 22, 2008

  • opposite = aphelion

    June 22, 2008

  • The highest point of its orbit

    June 22, 2008

  • can't be arsed = can't be bothered

    June 22, 2008

  • The man in the moon

    Came tumbling down

    And asked the way to Norwich.

    They told him south,

    He burnt his mouth,

    Eating cold pease porridge


    Pease pudding is the ideal accompaniment to boiled bacon, and can be bought in cans if you don't know (or can't be arsed) to make it.

    June 22, 2008

  • I used to have a newspaper cutting, but I've lost it now. It told of two guys in hospital with broken necks or somesuch. They had both fallen out of the upper window of a bar. Witnesses said they were trying to see who could lean out the farthest. They were said to be laughing as they fell...

    June 21, 2008

  • More likely to be a real hair I'd have thought. The gate is (part of) the mechanism for moving the film strip on. More likely to be the shutter than the aperture.

    June 21, 2008

  • astronomical twilight, civil twilight, naval twilight.

    June 21, 2008

  • I always envisage a scintilla as being hard and sharp, like a glass splinter, whereas a soupcon sounds much more liquid somehow.

    June 21, 2008

  • Probably bigger than a soupcon

    June 21, 2008

  • French = suspicion (should be soupçon)

    an eentsy-weentsy amount, but bigger than a nuage

    June 21, 2008

  • French = cloud

    a very small amount - just pass the cork over the mixing bowl

    June 21, 2008

  • Very small.

    "Eentsy-weentsy spider

    went up the spout.

    Down came the rain and

    washed the spider out."

    - Children's song

    June 21, 2008

  • Somebody sent me this yesterday:

    Thoughts of a Jewish Buddhist

    Let your mind be as a floating cloud. Let your stillness be as the wooded glen. And sit up straight. You'll never meet the Buddha with posture like that.

    There is no escaping karma. In a previous life, you never called, you never wrote, you never visited. And whose fault was that?

    Wherever you go, there you are. Your luggage is another story.

    To practice Zen and the art of Jewish motorcycle maintenance, do the following: get rid of the motorcycle. What were you thinking?

    Be aware of your body. Be aware of your perceptions. Keep in mind that not every physical sensation is a symptom of a terminal illness.

    If there is no self, whose arthritis is this?

    Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. Forget this and attaining Enlightenment will be the least of your problems.

    The Tao has no expectations. The Tao demands nothing of others. The Tao does not speak. The Tao does not blame. The Tao does not take sides. The Tao is not Jewish.

    Drink tea and nourish life. With the first sip, joy. With the second, satisfaction. With the third, Danish.

    The Buddha taught that one should practice loving kindness to all sentient beings. Still, would it kill you to find a nice sentient being who happens to be Jewish?

    Be patient and achieve all things. Be impatient and achieve all things faster.

    To Find the Buddha, look within. Deep inside you are ten thousand flowers. Each flower blossoms ten thousand times. Each blossom has ten thousand petals. You might want to see a specialist.

    Be here now. Be someplace else later. Is that so complicated?

    Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkes.

    Zen Judaism: For You, A Little Enlightenment

    by David M. Bader

    June 21, 2008

  • Why does it need reviving? Is it dying?

    June 21, 2008

  • Not the little old guys with pointy hats:

    gnomic = characterized by the expression of popular wisdom in the condensed form of proverbs or aphorisms, also known as gnomes. The term was first used of the ‘Gnomic Poets’ of 6th�?century Greece, although there are older traditions of gnomic writing in Chinese, Egyptian, and other cultures; the Hebrew book of Proverbs is a well�?known collection. The term is often extended to later writings in which moral truths are presented in maxims or aphorisms.

    June 21, 2008

  • Name given to the yellowish, greasy scaly patches appearing on the scalp of young babies.

    June 21, 2008

  • = uniform resource locator

    June 21, 2008

  • Those quotation marks sure cock up the url. That and the length of the "word". Get to it here

    June 21, 2008

  • a cunning stunt

    June 21, 2008

  • French for semicolon ;

    June 21, 2008

  • There are (or were) a lot in the southeast corner of England (Kent), where hops are grown.

    June 21, 2008

  • Caffeine found in tea.

    pronunced as tea-een

    June 21, 2008

  • In Manhattan, it's South of Houston Street. Definitely borrowed from London

    June 21, 2008

  • A grammatically independent and phonologically dependent word. It is pronounced like an affix, but works at the phrase level. For example, the English possessive -'s is a clitic; in the phrase the girl next door’s cat, -’s is phonologically attached to the preceding word door while grammatically combined with the phrase the girl next door, the possessor.

    June 21, 2008

  • A clitic that follows its host

    June 21, 2008

  • "D'oh!" is a catch phrase used by the fictional character Homer Simpson, from the long-running animated series The Simpsons (1989–). Homer's ubiquitous catch phrase was famously added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2001, without the apostrophe. The spoken word "D'oh" is a trademark of 20th Century Fox.

    June 21, 2008

  • Shouldn't that be banana's - grocer's apostrophe?

    June 21, 2008

  • D'oh!

    OK, can I claim a new record for the highest number of years having the wrong word in my head? Must be nearly 50.

    June 21, 2008

  • The little man in boat makes me smile too.

    June 21, 2008

  • another euphemism for clitoris.

    Because the head of the clitoris with surrounding tissue looks like a man in a boat.

    If you want your woman to be happy, you have to talk to the man in the boat.

    www.urbandictionary.com

    June 21, 2008

  • A variant of wit is wot, which is almost unknown outside of its negative: wotless, "unknowing, ignorant" (pretty much synonymous with witless) and the phrase God wot, meaning "God knows".

    June 21, 2008

  • = witless

    June 21, 2008

  • Thomas Edward Brown. 1830–1897

    My Garden

    A GARDEN is a lovesome thing, God wot!

    Rose plot,

    Fringed pool,

    Fern'd grot—

    The veriest school

    Of peace; and yet the fool

    Contends that God is not—

    Not God! in gardens! when the eve is cool?

    Nay, but I have a sign;

    'Tis very sure God walks in mine.

    June 21, 2008

  • They should be exactly reusable every 28 years.

    June 21, 2008

  • A kind of dingleberry. But no matter how hard you tug it, it wilmot come off!

    June 20, 2008

  • Norwegian for shitbag

    June 20, 2008

  • Obviously he runs a bakery

    June 20, 2008

  • Slang for prison, hence stir crazy

    June 20, 2008

  • Mad from being locked up in prison

    June 20, 2008

  • Thought you might like to know that wahaha is a Chinese drinks company

    June 20, 2008

  • OK then: competition time

    June 20, 2008

  • Full menu

    June 20, 2008

  • Here are some examples from the Christmas menu I enjoyed in Nanning (Guangxi) last December:

    The Dutch cowboys dig up spell roast the turkey (Black pepper juice)

    Cream tricky grass milk-fish platoon

    Annoys the taste turkey to approve Sa

    Halogen intestines salad

    I think a platoon must be a big plate

    June 20, 2008

  • v. to steal apples from a tree

    June 20, 2008

  • A solid figure with six faces and right vertices. Like a brick.

    June 20, 2008

  • Imitative of local dialect for Birmingham

    June 20, 2008

  • "Her looks were ravishing, but when it came to ravishing, looks weren't enough."

    - my best friend used to say that, I wonder where he got it from!

    Maybe I'll just say

    - Louis Zukofsky and leave it at that. He seems to have supplied quite a lot of shite here.

    June 20, 2008

  • feminine is gamine.

    June 20, 2008

  • cf demotic

    June 20, 2008

  • How about 'buoy'? We Brits rhyme it with boy, whereas Americans rhyme with phooey.

    June 20, 2008

  • "Two thumbs-up" (as they say on pirate dvd covers round here).

    June 20, 2008

  • The opposite of clockwise

    name of a book by Oliver Onions

    June 20, 2008

  • also known as = pseudonym

    June 20, 2008

  • Does it solve a problem, or merely disguise it?

    June 20, 2008

  • aka piles

    June 20, 2008

  • A proprietary ointment claimed to relieve the symptoms of haemorrhoids/hemorrhoids/piles

    NB only relieves the symptoms, does nothing for the underlying cause.

    June 20, 2008

  • An Egyptian religious device, rather like a cross, but with a loop top. Unicode character U2625 doesn't render on my browser.

    June 20, 2008

  • Body language-ists say it is imitative of hitting them (the disapprovees) with a stick.

    June 20, 2008

  • gallowglass

    June 20, 2008

  • "its sic where you smash somebody in the leg really hard and there sic leg goes like numb, and they have trouble moving it because you just smashed it." - urbandictionary.com

    June 20, 2008

  • "its where you smash somebody in the leg really hard and there leg goes like numb, and they have trouble moving it because you just smashed it." - urbandictionary.com

    June 20, 2008

  • Empty bottles - because they have lost their spirit.

    "Down among the dead men let me lie" = let me get so drunk I fall off my chair.

    June 20, 2008

  • A device intended to stop a machine in case the human operator becomes incapacitated, commonly used in locomotives and dangerous machinery.

    Typically, the controller handle is a horizontal bar, rotated to apply the required power. Attached to the bottom of the handle is a rod which, when pushed down, contacts a solenoid or switch inside the control housing. The handle springs up if pressure is removed, releasing the rod's contact with the internal switch, instantly cutting power and applying the brakes.

    June 20, 2008

  • A fan of the Grateful Dead

    June 20, 2008

  • The dead man's hand is a two-pair poker hand, namely "aces and eights." The hand gets its name from the legend of it having been the five-card-draw hand held by Wild Bill Hickok at the time of his murder (August 2, 1876). It is accepted that the hand included the aces and eights of both of the black suits and either the jack or queen of diamonds. The term, before the murder of Hickok, referred to a variety of hands.

    June 20, 2008

  • salopettes

    June 20, 2008

  • High-waisted skiing pants: a garment worn by skiers, comprising a pair of usually padded, water-resistant pants that reach up to the chest with straps passing over the shoulders.

    June 20, 2008

  • a pilgrimage

    June 20, 2008

  • 1) half-round (usually) drainage channel that runs round the edge of a roof etc.

    2) action of a candle, like flickering

    June 20, 2008

  • Luckily this is a word, but not the one I was thinking of. Where's the delete button?

    This means "to flow through". I meant diaeresis.

    June 20, 2008

  • nitpick

    June 20, 2008

  • to look for nits

    June 20, 2008

  • one person's "zaftig" is another's "fat"

    June 20, 2008

  • impressively developed abdomenal musculature, if that's what impresses you

    June 20, 2008

  • Never heard of her!

    All free association is my own.

    June 20, 2008

  • epicurean

    June 20, 2008

  • It's a range of furniture in Ikea. I pronounce it like bodge, which is how a lot of people perform with a flatpack.

    June 20, 2008

  • The term generally relates to items of furniture that have been specially designed to be taken away from stores, their component parts packed flat to minimize size, and assembled by consumers in their homes. This aspect of self-assembly has been simplified as far as possible and requires only very basic tools such as a screwdriver and a minimal level of skill.

    June 20, 2008

  • I saw this in Ikea last week - it's a reading lamp!

    June 20, 2008

  • ... phthisis ... treatable with a phthalein

    June 20, 2008

  • The real thing, not reduced in any way. cf "the whole nine yards".

    June 19, 2008

  • The Foucault pendulum , or Foucault's pendulum, named after the French physicist Léon Foucault, was conceived as an experiment to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth.

    Get the full monty from wikipedia here. . . . it's heavy.

    June 19, 2008

  • different from zeugma, apparently. Or do I mean ellipsis?

    June 19, 2008

  • hyper-annoyed: to go apeshit

    June 19, 2008

  • make-up and good clothes: "put on one's foo-foo"

    June 19, 2008

  • When I was a boy, we made do with a comb and some toilet paper. Not that soft toilet paper we get nowadays, but hard medicated stuff.

    June 19, 2008

  • A slide whistle (variously known as a swannee whistle, piston flute or less commonly jazz flute) is a wind instrument consisting of a fipple like a recorder's and a tube with a piston in it. It thus has an air reed like some woodwinds, but varies the pitch with a slide. Because the air column is cylindrical and open at one end and closed at the other, it overblows the third harmonic.

    To fans of 1970s BBC children's television, the instrument will always be associated with the voices of the Clangers. The instrument also features prominently in the game of "Swannee-Kazoo" in the long-running British radio panel game, I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.

    June 19, 2008

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Comments for johnmperry

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  • jmp: Welcome additions for my Initial Initial list. Thanks.

    July 31, 2008