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Not wanting to interrupt the lovely flow of memories in the Alistair Cooke thread, I post this here. What is this, please, jheem? Or anyone?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Thanks, Jackie. I was going to ask the same question. I'm guessing it has something to do with monetary units?
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veteran
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Probably miscaptialized it, but l == pounds (from libra), s == shillings (for solidus), d == pence (for denarius). It's the old monetary system in the UK before 1970-something. Maybe 1969. First saw the term in Finnegans Wake. I don't think I heard my dad use the term, but by then the other LSD had taken hold of the public's imagination. 12 d to the shilling, 20 shilling to the pound, 21 to the guinea. Pound is also called a quid, shilling a bob. There used to be a 10-bob note (which Mean Mr Mustard had up his nose), now there's a 50 p coin. Prices used to be written with a slash (or virgule) for the shilling: e.g., 5/6 (pronounced 5 and 6) for 5 shilling, 6 pence.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Ooh--L for pound?? When they were divided into twelfths? Good, Anna--my mind had fixated at the drug, and got no further.
EDIT: 14 seconds. Sheesh. :-)
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Uncle's capitalisation was correct - Lsd. The letters were even used at times as a colloquialism for money. "Now let's talk about the Lsd".
Five pounds, one pound and ten shillings were the values of the notes in common use while there were coins for two shillings and six pence, two shillings (sometimes called a florin - an older name for it), one shilling, six pence, three pence, one penny, a halfpenny and a farthing (quarter of a penny) which, along with the threepenny bit, disappeared before the others. The threepenny bit was thick and heavy and I assume that is why it alone was called a 'bit'.
When I was a boy, the two and sixpenny coin (known as half a crown) was given the slang description of 'half a dollar', giving some idea of the exchange rate at about that time - or rather, I suspect, just prewar.
Is that all clear?
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Carpal Tunnel
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This should be in the retronym thread.
[idly whistling whilst looking chalantly up in the air-e]
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Carpal Tunnel
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This should be in the retronym thread. Nuh-uh.  'Cause the other's LSD, not Lsd.
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[FAldage NiPICKers' LEague]
>This should be in the retronym thread. Nuh-uh. 'Cause the other's LSD, not Lsd.
I read that as "pre-decimal Lsd" :as opposed to: "Lsd"
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