|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891 |
STOOP - We use this term to mean the tiny landing at the top of the stairs in front of the door. You usually sit on the stoop taking in the goings-on on the street. Elizabeth, maybe it's the French seeping over to you  In French, we say walking around in sock-feet too when you walk around in socks alone.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 500
addict
|
|
addict
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 500 |
maybe it's the French seeping over to you
Oh, no doubt. I love being sesquilingual, and frequently use French phrases like "pas de probleme" and "Que faites-tu?" when I'm talking to my husband - who knows far less French than even my half-assed accomplishment, but "gets it" from context.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891 |
pas de probleme
Ha! You are a Frenchy Elizabeth, you'd fit right in here...."No problem" - that's our unofficial motto.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 176
member
|
|
member
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 176 |
trap
Now that's one I've never heard!
Thanks, H!
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
check out Engrish.com (a site full of mostly japanese mangled english..)
on left menu, click on Signs and Posters..
to to LAST, and then Previous--(penultimate page)
to get to "Pictures 177 to 192 of 195"
scroll down to the bottom of the page.
the first europian language dictionary in japan was a Dutch/Japanese one.. Later they realized Dutch was not the most widely spoken language in the world, (just happened that Dutch had made inroads into that part of asia!)
Trap--as a synonym for staircase/stepping stones was apparently not unknown in english.(at some point in the past) and the japanese still use Trap occationally.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
"Emergency Trap"--ha; didn't look like a step to me. I've never heard trap for step; I guess not as many Dutch settled in KY as they did north and east of here. I like the term 'trap rock', though; it has kind of a ring to it.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
In north New England it's barefoot for bare feet and padding for wearing just sox. I wonder if the passing comes partly from the fact that your feet are padded by the sox?
And paddding around has a sort of aimless quality to the phrase or sometimes a sneaky element depending on how it's used!
Confusing, wot?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
In Britland we say 'barefoot' or 'in stockinged feet'. No commonly used cute expression for either that I am aware of. Padding around would simply imply silence and probably stealth - to me anyway.
(If I ever go without shoes, even indoors, the result is usually highly painful ~ Johnny Head-in-air.)
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
The common feature of most examples of the word pad seems to be a sense of cushioning, as traced in some of the examples at etymonline: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=p(though I note that Bartleby gives a slightly different etymology for the pad component of footpad to that offered in the first site, tracing it to words meaning path more directly: http://www.bartleby.com/61/roots/IE394.html)
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
From mav's Bartleby link:
b. pad2; footpad, from Middle Dutch pad, way, path.
Hmm--is this why foot Dr.'s are podiatrists?
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,809
Members9,187
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
791
guests, and
0
robots. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
