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Joined: Jun 2006
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295 |
In French in use as 'faire une gaffe'. In Dutch change one letter ( f to a ) and 'gaaf' means: spotless, perfect or cool!.
* Anu's first context is coming from the book 'The Killing Season' which contains the opposite of what it suggests. About a man who as an old gaffer abhors killing even the tiniest creature.
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Joined: Jun 2009
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stranger
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stranger
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 3 |
What happened to the use of the word "gaff" as a type of sailboat rigging wherein the mainsail is squared off by the use of three spars rather that the usual two. The three spars are the mast, boom and GAFF. This enables the mainsail to be much larger that the three-sided sail.
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Joined: Jun 2009
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stranger
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stranger
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 1 |
There is also the British saying "blow the gaff," roughly equivalent to the American "squeal on someone."
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Joined: Jun 2009
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stranger
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stranger
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 1 |
You have missed one other meaning for "gaff". In the entertainment community the head of the lighting crew is called the gaffer and when they explain to the crew what to do we say they "gaff the crew". When I saw "gaff" today I was very excited because I am a gaffer and I was a bit disappointed not to see this meaning.
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
"gaff the crew"
I think that the verb gaff is probably a backformation from gaffer (cf. babysit, burgle, etc.). That being said, I have often wondered if gaffer in its movie electrician meaning was related to gaff 'the hook' or gaffer in its old man or boss (UK) sense. Some movie industry terminology is quite interesting: e.g., gobo, cookie (or cucaloris), vorkapich (for montage sequence), gaffer tape (not to be confused with duct tape), C47 (aka clothes pin).
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
zmj, you're just the best boy!
formerly known as etaoin...
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
best boy
Ta, eta. It was the first Airplane! movie that had a Worst Boy: Adolf Hitler in its credits right after the best boy credit.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Joined: Jun 2008
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,944 Likes: 3 |
I'll plead ignorance, if gaff refers to the electrical, what
does "best boy" refer to in movie production??
----please, draw me a sheep----
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
The best boy electric and the best boy grip are assistants to the gaffer and the key grip respectively.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 7
stranger
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stranger
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 7 |
"Gaffer" is also in late Middle English/early Modern English a term for "grandfather." And "gammer" is, or was, grandmother
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