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I haven't hijacked one of twuwm's wwftd recently, and this isn't exactly a highjack. He gives "dosh" as British slang for "money". By accident I found that Issue 98 of "Take Our Word For It" has several paragraphs about this word in the segment called "Words to the Wise". http://www.takeourword.com/Issue098.htmlFor a good article on slang: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/ip/jasminelassen/Slang%202.html There I found meaning for another bit of British slang that I had been unable to understand: "one-off" as in "nonce word = one-off coinage"
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enthusiast
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I'm very surprised to learn that 'one-off' is considered slang, or not always understood. It would never have occurred to me to question it. Perhaps it's from some specific trade (a one-off job: some kind of manufacture, or tailoring or something of that nature perhaps).
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Dear wwh:
Thanks for the "Take Our Word for It" site. Your link worked fine this morning, by the way. Lots to plunder there. I especially enjoyed the discussion about the origin of Union Jack.
Best regards,
WW
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Sweet Nicholas--it's delightful to see you! <Enormous Grin>
"One-off" is never heard, here. I've picked up the meaning by context, from my Brit-speaking friends on the board. I believe the last time I heard it, though, it wasn't in ref. to an object, exactly--I think it was used re: a journey
that was not going to be repeated.
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old hand
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There's an underappreciated movie called "Funny Bones" - Oliver Platt, Jerry Lewis (don't let that stop you), and this super-gifted physical comedian named Lee Evans. In it, one of the devices that drives the plot is a human foot that washes ashore at Blackpool, England. In a press conference, the manager of the beach resort characterizes it as a one-off.  A couple of days later, *another* human foot washes ashore, and the press reconvenes. One of the reporters says "I thought you said it was a one-off." The manager, facing the press, insists "Well, of course it's a one-off. Two feet, but off one *person*"  The very blackest of comedies... if you go for that kind of thing, as I do, I recommend it. But that was my first exposure to the term - and that's forever how I'll remember it.
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I too am surprised that "one-off" is considered slang. 'Round these parts it is not considered slang, it is a perfectly reputable word!
From the OED:
b. one off: a single example of a manufactured product; something not repeated; a prototype. Freq. (with hyphen) attrib. or as adj. Also transf. and fig. Cf. off adv. 13, once-off adj. s.v. once adv. B. 7b.
The first use was:
1934 Proc. Inst. Brit. Foundrymen XXVI. 552 A splendid one-off pattern can be swept up in very little time.
Rouspéteur
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I regret having called "one-off" slang. Obviously, from Rouspeteur's post, it is a recent coinage, suitable for use in fairly formal communication. I was surprised today to find it in my dictionary, British origin noted. The logic of its construction still eludes me. Since I do not know a US close equivalent, I may eventually find it useful.
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>Since I do not know a US close equivalent...
one-shot
>The logic of its construction...
it's from a little used form of the adverb off:
with a preceding numeral to represent a quantity in production or manufacture, I'd look at it as 'off the (normal) production stream/line'.
1947 Crowther & Whiddington Science at War Manufacturers found it very difficult to give up mass production, in order to make the 200 or so sets ‘off’. 1970 Cabinet Maker & Retail Furnisher Without barrier coats mould breakdown can start after 60 units off. 1973 Physics Bull., Kienzle printers. 6 off, surplus to manufacturing requirements.
one-off therefore being the most extreme level of 'off' you can attain. :)
None of the motor-cars illustrated is a standardized mass-produced model; all are expensive, specialized, handicraft one-offs which can justly be compared to the Parthenon because, like it, they are unique works of handmade art.
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I must share others' astonishment that "one-off" is regarded as slang or even unusual. The origin comes from pattern-making, as I understand it. A one-off was originally cast from a cheaply-made sand mould which was destroyed in the process. Hence one off the pattern or mould. Now, if only I had the dosh to buy that Oxford Modern Terms book I saw the other day ... 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Somewhat belatedly I'll chime in with astonishment at the seeming lack of gobal utilisation of this phrase! Must be a Brit Commonwealth thing by the looks of those of us that know it.
I see it inhabiting the same basket as the recently discussed "run of the mill" in that it's a manufacturing / production term.
Not to be confused with "one of" - normally present on a parts list (and written "1X" in a table on the production drawing) to indicate that the finished item only requires one of a particular component. (Just to confuse things, the production drawing for a "one off" product would no doubt have a few "one of" items on the parts list!)
Now, don't tell me you don't use the phrase "one of"?
stales
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Now, don't tell me you don't use the phrase "one of"? Not the way you did in your post, Sweetie, as an adjective by itself. We wouldn't have any "one of" items.
We have "one of a kind" items, or one of xyz number of items. Or we say, "that version is one of many", for ex.
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one offThe only time I've ever heard "one off" is in the context of "one off the mark"...you're just one off. I spent a lot of time with Brit friends (one a fellow mate on a tour boat for a whole summer), and others in the entertainment field, and I don't remember one-off ever coming up, because I'm sure I would have asked about it as I would any new expression or idiom...curious. black humor Enjoyed your little tale, Fiberbabe! And if, as you say, black humor is your favorite, I hereby command you to go out and rent "Black Adder's Christmas" immediately (if you haven't seen it ), 'cause 'tis the season!
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Another of twuwms's wwftd. A Brit catch-all for various types of uncooperative, aggressive behaviour.
But it looking it up on Internet, I ran into another Britspeak item. One site said quarter of a million workers daily stay home from work because of on job stress symptoms. Those who do so without valid cause are called "skivers". I know the word "skive" meaning take a hide and split it into two layers, producing one of uniform thickness suitable for shoes, etc. I do not get the picture how the word got to mean "feign illness".
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our Brits may have a better answer for you bill, but this skiver is a different word; from the verb skive, of military issue, To evade a duty, to shirk; to avoid work by absenting oneself, to play truant. Also with off. [perh. ad. Fr. esquiver, to dodge, slink away, but see skive(2), To move lightly and quickly; to dart -- of obscure origin]
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Dear MaxQ: Since Zild is really big on sheep, I would be very much surprised if sheepskin leather were not an important commercial item there. The thinkness of hide varies so much, that splitting the hide as I described would be essential for many purposes. What would be the Zild word for such splitting?
Incidentally, "skive" is a very old word, not invented in US.
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That is the first time I have heard my hometown of Blackpool mentioned ( Funnybones is a dark and strangely compelling film) stroppy is a word i use a lot
as is skive , my dad tells me that he first heard "skive"
in the army in the 50's as in "I was supposed to be cleaning the latrines but i managed to skive off"
"stroppy" is what I get sometimes when the dosh,the wedge ,the wonga,the poke runs out and I am left "without a pot to piss in" totally "brassic"
the Duncster ( lethal bones)
the Duncster
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Re: totally brassic this is broke, flat, busted? lacking money? i think it is interesting that brass is so often used in UK english for money.. I have heard expensive things defined at costing good brass, and worthless things as not worth a brass farthing. but in the US, brass is usually nerve, verve or gall! monkeys aside, when some one has brass balls they have courage--foolhearty courage sometimes, or they are nervy-- and some one defined as brassy is loud and pushy-- the only association i have of brass with money, is from a pawn shop-- and that is fading fast, as pawn shops become fewer and fewer, and the few that are left rarely display the three brass balls i learned to associate with pawn shops. for more on pawn shops.. http://www.familypawn.com/about.htm
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Dear of troy: I read a long time ago that the first pawnbrokers were Lombards. . The Lombards were said to have taken lumber to secure loans, then branched out into other durable commodities. In UK, attic space where unused items are stored is called a "lumber room" by analogy to Lombard storage yards.
I found several sites giving legends about the origin of the three balls as indicating location of pawnbroker.
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I certainly have one of those accents! as Blackpool is about 250 miles north of Watford gap, but as far as "brass" is concerned I have heard the expression "brass neck" to mean cheek or bravado as in "after the way he treated her he had the brass neck to walk back in and think she would take him back"
Greetings from the 'pool
the Duncster ( lethal bones)
the Duncster
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> and worthless things as not worth a brass farthing
In Ozspeak we have "not worth a brass razzoo"
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