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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
Fit to crack the jaws; difficult to pronounce. Also transf. [OED2] 
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Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475 |
Not to be confused with jaw-crackers, i.e., a kind of hard candy in the USA.
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
jaw-crackerswhich I think we would more commonly call jaw-breakers.
formerly known as etaoin...
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
with jaw-crackers, i.e., a kind of hard candy in the USA
more commonly jaw-breakers here on east coast. (and there is also Willy Wonka brand of 'ever lasting gob stoppers' which are the same sort of thing.
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Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475 |
Actually, they're called jaw-breakers here on the Wrong Coast, too. I was just misremembering my youth.
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
Listening to Radio 4 (a filthy habit; I must break it. I'll have a fag and think about it!) the French Academie has just approved a bunch of franglais words. Problem is, they are all from the 1950s and have largely fallen into disuse. I can only imagine that it's a way of appearing to support change without actually having to do so!
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Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475 |
The French Academy has a website which I always thought was far too adventurous ... http://www.academie-francaise.fr/A while back on my blog, there were a bunch of entries on Quebecois and European French approved blogging terms. Reading the term fag reminds me of how my father, a Yank, always referred to cigarettes as fags. Must've been due to his time in London during the Blitz. I used to shudder to think one of my friends might hear him and misinterpret.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
here on the Wrong Coast Oh, that explains it, then... heh heh heh
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