Showing posts with label Words. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Words. Show all posts

Saturday 8 August 2015

Physicality or Brutishness?



My knees informed me that we were not going far today, we were standing at the bus park at the time, so I checked the minutes before any bus arrived and calculated it would be better returning to bed.  I wandered around town first trying to get some sunshine onto me, collected my veg and went home to cogitate on words, especially 'physicality.'
You see this is another word that has suddenly become common usage in the football world.  For a while footballers became 'athletes' something they were never called in my young days, and now using their strength has become 'having good physicality.'  Instead of 'barging the enemy about' it's 'making use of his physicality.'  Why I ask must we use language in such a manner?  All organisations, all groups of people, all towns, cities and villages (all today always called 'communities' rather than what they are, towns, cities and villages) have words used in their line of business or area.  This is normal and we can all soon gather the appropriate terms if need be but why are the words in football these days so silly?
Could it be an attempt by those with too much money trying to improve their image?  Using a word like 'cogitate' rather than 'think' makes me look educated, something which is soon disproved.  Also if we have our own language we 'belong,' we belong to a specific group and are better than they out there, we can then look down on their stupidity and feel superior and bully them needlessly.  But the man using the word today is not looking down on folks, nor does he bully, this man was just speaking words from the up to date phraseology and probably didn't notice he was doing this.  It may well be the number of highly trained sports physio's, doctors and specialists originated such a phrase hopefully they will soon learn to speak in simple terms so the lads around them can understand what they are talking about.

p.s, The Heart of Midlothian are top of the league already.  Only run of the mill physicality was used. 

 


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Tuesday 4 November 2014

Words.



Stop saying "Taking it forward."
Stop using terms like "Moving forward."
Speak properly!

If you are commentating on football do not say "Just about" when you mean "He did!"

Why say "frame of the goal" when you mean goalpost?


"Selfie?" No it's a self portrait or 'snap!'

"Awesome" Do Americans only have one word in their vocabulary!?

Language is communication, you inform people what happens, or what you mean.  You do not do this by using the wrong words or words out of contest that do not mean anything!!! 

I'm off to bed before I self destruct!

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Wednesday 20 July 2011

Edinburra Words

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Stolen bare-faced from a 'must see' site Day by Day Photos


Recently the Heart of Midlothian forum 'Kickback,' often referred to by other terms, had a thread concentrating on old Edinburgh words. Most of these are still in use today, however language is a 
constantly evolving activity and words fall out of use and others take their place. Words used in towns and cities often differ from those used in smaller places, hence in Edinburgh the citizens are happy to announce they possess no accent of any type at all while in mining villages s was a mere mile or so outside of the city accents can be very strong indeed. Tourists, in their usual tiring manner, claim they can tell no difference, and English TV channels have been known to use subtitles on occasion for the citizens of Edinburgh, must to the chagrin of the population!  Clearly this would be acceptable in Glasgow, Aberdeen or a wee place like Dumbarton, but not at all required in Scotland's capital city, ken whit a mean like pal, you know?


Here is the list of words and other bits that I have compiled from the thread mentioned, most of  
them are easily understood but those dwelling in the colonies may well have difficulties. Let's face it they do not understand the difference between Lallans and English for crying out loud, there again neither do the English!  




'Bag off.' -   A term referring to meeting a young lass and having a good snog! 
'Bam.'     -   An individual who appears mentally unbalanced, e.g. Hibernian supporter. 
'Barrie' or 'Barry.'  -  This means 'Good,' 'Excellent.'      
'Basher.'  -   Ice cream slider with a tunnocks snowball inside. Much missed by me.
'Ben the'  -  'As in 'Ben the hoose' meaning 'Through to another part of the house.  
'Bogging'  -  'Horrible,' as in 'Horrible.'
'Bucket.'  -  'An Edinburgh term for 'dustbin.' I suspect 'Wheelie buns have led to the demise of this term.
'Choob'    -   'Idiot.'  As in Hibernian supporter.
'Choreying' - 'Thieving.' 
'Clarty.'   -    'Dirty,' 'unclean,' as in 'Old Firm Fan.' 
'Dreep.'   -    A method of getting down from a height, such as a window or a wall.
'Dreich.'   -   Bad weather, drizzle like cold rain. 
'Eejit.'     -   Another word for idiot. 
'Filly.'      -   The brown leather football used until the late 50's. 
'Gadgie.'  -    Person.
'Gardyloo.'  - The phrase used when emptying the loo pot out the window.
'Glaikit.'  -    'Gormless,'  as in 'Hibernian fan.' 
'Glaur.'   -    'Meaning 'mud,' as in my boots were covered in glaur. (Never heard of this myself.
'Gawkin.'  -  'Looking.'
A 'Guider' -  A homemade go-kart usually comprising wheels from an old pram and spare wood.  
'Loupin.'  -   Meaning 'sickening.'  Never heard of this!
'Loused,' -   Meaning 'finished work.'
'Messages.'  - As in going 'shopping' for the house groceries. 
'Mince.'  -   An derogatory opinion.
'Minging.' -  'Filthy,' 'Unclean,' 'smelling,' as in Hibernian or Old Firm supporter. 
'Peeve.'  -   'Drink alcohol.'  Not used in my day!

'Peevers.' -  Hopscotch' to some.
'Piece.'  -   'Sandwiches made for work.'
'Puff.'    -   'Meaning lifespan as 'Never in your puff'.
'Puggled.' - 'Tired,' 'worn out.'  As in me.

'Radge,' or Raj.' - See 'Bam.'

'Scud.'   -  'Naked.'
'Scullery.' - 'Kitchen.'  (National word surely? 

'Shottie.'  -  As in 'Give me a shot.' 'Let me have a go.' (Aberdeen term surely?) 
'Siver.'   -  'Drain,' 'gully,' or 'that grill thing' depending on where you come from, at side of road.
'Slider.'  -  An ice cream wafer. (national surely.)
'Sloppy Joe.'  - T-shirt
'Spraf.'  - Chat.  Never heard this.
The 'Store.' - the Co-Operative Shop.
'Square go.' - fight
'Sybies.'   - Spring onions.
'Wee hairy.'  - Adolescent girl. (Not used in polite company.) 


Some other regularly used terms 

"How no?"  -  "Why not?"
"The morn."  - 'Tomorrow.' As in "The morn's morn"
"Whot fur no?"  -  "Why not?"
"The back o' ten."  - "The time is just after ten."


There are many more, and others will come to mind later. Some words go back into the midst of time, some were brought in from far away by immigrants in times long past, some were made up by drunks in Dalkeith, language as I have said 'evolves.'  Different parts of the country speak with different accents and have been influenced by ancient contacts. For instance in Aberdeen and the North East they speak the 'Doric.'  while in Edinburgh and the central Lowlands, as you know, we speak Lallans.  In Glasgow they just speak violence!  It is important to realise that 'Blogger' is of course guided by the 'American' spelling of what they term 'English,' and it has been most upset by some of the words used here. That is of course just typical of American imperialism isn't it?










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Wednesday 4 May 2011

You think English is easy?

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This arrived by e-mail the other day. What appears quite easy at first can become a real tongue twister!

Read to the end .. . . A new twist

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.

2) The farm was used to produce produce .

3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4) We must polish the Polish furniture.

5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present

8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object.

11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row ...

13) They were too close to the door to close it.

14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2

meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by

filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick' ?
 
You lovers of the English language might enjoy this .

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is 'UP.'

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP ? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP ? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report ?

We call UP our friends. And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.

And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP ! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP . When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP...

When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.

When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP.

One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now my time is UP, so........it is time to shut UP! 


Good innit? No idea who came up with this but I salute them!


Monday 8 October 2007

Words mean So Much

"Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me." That was one of the common things we used to say as kids, usually after someone calling us names had just hurt us! Words, as you know, mean so much. usually it is not the words themselves but the way we use them. In the UK it used to be common to describe any Asian who was seen as 'Paki.' Paki as in short for Pakistan. In Edinburgh in the seventies it caused no offence, except to that nice Mr Kyaham who insisted he was "Indian and no bloody Paki!" No-one of Pakistan descent worried about it. later of course it was used in a derogatory fashion by neo right wing groups and fell out of use. 'Jock' is a term for Scotsmen, and I think should always be viewed as complimentary. After all, what can be better than saying "I am a Scotsman?" However on occasion even that word can be used to hurt and insult rather than compliment.

Words are often misunderstood. When she asks "Does my bum look big in this" and you honestly answer that it does, she will deliberately use that as an excuse to remain stonily silent for several hours. Women seem to specialise in misunderstanding words in such situations. A "Yes" often appears to mean "no" and if you misunderstand and accept at face value here word all sorts of trouble can arise. Possibly women and words needs to be for another time?


Politicians and words are marvellous, the emphasis on the 'lous' part. If they lose a vote they will claim they have actually got everybody on their side! In 1968 I remember a Communist being elected in a council seat I think in Inverness. "This is a sign that the people are turning to us," said the leader of the Scottish Communists, ignoring the Scottish Nationalist Party winning 368 seats on the same night! To reach the top in politics it is advisable to avoid truth and stick to being devious. No one wants an honest politician anyway, they might expect it back from the citizens. That would never do!

One day every idle word we utter will be brought back to us,as I discovered when I found some things I wrote a hundred years ago. How frightening is that? Did I really think those thoughts and say those words? What else have I said in all these years I have drifted through life? The mind boggles at the cobblers I have come out with! Anyway I found some folks who may also regret the words they have used, but at least they give us a laugh.

Moving from Wales to Italy is like moving to a different country - Ian Rush

I never criticise referees and I'm not going to change a habit for that prat. - Ron Atkinson

"Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can't help but cry. I mean I'd love to be skinny like that, but not with all those flies and death and stuff." --Mariah Carey

"Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life," -- Brooke Shields, during an interview to become spokesperson for federal anti-smoking campaign.

"Your food stamps will be stopped effective March 1992 because we received notice that you passed away. May God bless you. You may reapply if there is a change in your circumstances." --Department of Social Services, Greenville, South Carolina
"If somebody has a bad heart, they can plug this jack in at night as they go to bed and it will monitor their heart throughout the night. And the next morning, when they wake up dead, there'll be a record." --Mark S. Fowler, FCC Chairman

"As God once said, and I think rightly..."
- Margaret Thatcher.




Think before you speak, you know it makes sense.....