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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Is roperipe an actual word, or a misspelling? It's in the M-W entry for villain, http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/thesaurus?book=Thesaurus&va=villain. I thought it might be a misspelling, having just found one in Merriam-Webster: I went to their thesaurus for the word knave (I plead the 5th. Amendment on why), and found the word villian highlighted. When I clicked on it, surprise surprise, "No entries found that match villian." M-W doesn't have roperipe, nor did Google find it.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Roperipe meaning gallowsbait?
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
Brilliant, Dr Bill! I'd looked it up at Bartleby.com with no luck. That's got to be what it means. Can someone (tsuwm, Faldage, anyone?) get us a history?
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
not to put too fine a point on it, it breaks down to "ripe for the rope". as an adjective, "deserving to be hung"; as a noun, simply "a rascal".
-ron o.
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
a term like jailbait. is that used in UK?.. here in US there are laws concerning "the age of consent" it varies from state to state, but basically a girl under 14 to 16 is considered to young to be able to consent to sex, and even if she give verbal consent, a man can be held for statutory rape. Most often, its is not prosocuted, (speaking for NY here,) unless the man in question is more than 5 years older-- Wait, rereading, i realized i was being sexist, the law applies to both young men and women, not just women!
so a 16 year old guy could get away with sex with a 14 year old (even though she is under age of consent) but a 20 year old guy couldn't.. the courts have held that kids who know each other through school/siblings/are close in age, are not taking unfair advantage, but a adults should know better.
young girls who dress and behave like adults are jail bait.(i have never heard the term applied to a young guy!)
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
(i have never heard the term applied to a young guy!)
No, that's what a toyboy is.
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 508
addict
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addict
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 508 |
I've only ever heard boytoy - referring to a man significantly younger than the woman, eg, Ashton Kutcher is Demi's boytoy.  Can't say I've heard it used in quite the same context as jailbait, but I guess it could be.
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Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 555
addict
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addict
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Is this word pronounced as, rope-uh-ripe or rope-ripe? I'd go with the former; it is softer.
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
I'd stick with rope-ripe; the definition ain't gentle.
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
It shure ain't gentle--and, for the roperipe, the outcome ain't either.
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Is that what you musicians call a dying fall - or should that be autumnal decline? [/xthread]
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Then there was the friend of a friend of mine who was wearing a Vernal Falls T shirt. ( http://www.lateaugust.com/images/vernalfalls.jpg) I asked him if it was near Autumnal Springs. He had no idea what I was talking about.
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Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Nurse: Marry farewell. Pray what saucie merchant was
this that was so full of his roperipe?
Romeo: A gentleman, Nurse, that loues to heare himselfe
talke, and will speake more in an houre than hee will stand
to in a month.
Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene 4.
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
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Well done, that man - knew I'd heard it somewhere!
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788 |
Sorry, dears. Just got back yesterday from a week serving as chaplain at a church summer camp to 125 wildly pre-adolescent children. Whew. A return to the pleasures of etymology and literature is a great (if tardy) relief.
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