General Chat

Good grief.

Sir John Cheke (16 June 1514 – 13 September 1557) was an English classical scholar who wrote:

‘I am of this opinion that our own tung should be written cleane and pure, unmixt and unmangeled with borowing of other tunges; wherein if we take not heed by tiim, ever borowing and never paying, she shall be fain to keep her house as bankrupt‘.

George Bernard Shaw, or Oscar Wilde, or even both, I believe :-D

'Britain & America - divided by a common language'.

(Forget who said/wrote this quip.)

Many words have different meanings in different areas.
The way a person decides to 'use' that word is personal choice.
Caroline also didn't use the expression 'to hump', which is also used to mean the same thing in England!!

'Hump' has more than one meaning in English, strangely, Americans are totally baffled by the English phrase 'Getting the hump', ie to take offence/get annoyed or upset.

Surely we're not expected to moderate the words we use innocently, just because someone decides to put the word 'to' in front of it, giving that combination of letters a different meaning?
Quite a few English words can be made smutty by adding 'to' in front, for example, a type of carpet, a threaded implement for joining two pieces of wood.
If we have to be careful what we say because of the few, we may as well all speak in infuriating 'text' speak, and take all interest out of language.

Yes Rollo and yet it's not been RR even though that's not the meaning for the thread.

Are you aware of the US meaning of "to hump"?
Situation normal all fked up.
Catch 22 Joseph Heller - one of the few novels which successfully explains the last 100 years essential reading Dermot.

One I knew one I didn't Dermot...always good to keep up with new facts/words/whatever.

I enjoy any day I happen to bump headlong into a word I have never heard before & being in total loss of its meaning, I reach for my fairly reliable dictionary.

'Snafu' was today's example. Yesterday's was 'Pyknic'.

Make it a good one !