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addict
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addict
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Brilliant means "very clever" or "very good" to me. "My son is brilliant, he can do long multiplication in his head". "The band were brilliant, they played all the oldies"
Is this different from US usage?
Do UK wives tell their husbands to shut the frock up?
No, they would say something like "Darling, please unbutton my frock, and drop it gently to the floor. And if I ever catch you wearing it again...!"
Ro* Ward
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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"Darling, please unbutton my frock, and drop it gently to the floor. And if I ever catch you wearing it again...!" Oh, Ron/b/y--oh, D!--RoD, how funny!  I have to stick my US'n (I do like that abbreviation) preference in again, though we have done this before: The band was brilliant. It was brilliant. Your way makes so much sense, but just sounds wrong, wrong, wrong to me.
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Joined: Jan 2001
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stranger
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stranger
Joined: Jan 2001
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In American usage, I'd say it's very rare to hear the word "brilliant" in the sense of "very good."
In fact, just seeing "That band was brilliant!" in writing makes think think of a British accent.
(I'm also having an image of Basil Fawlty, screaming "Brilliant!" at the top of his lungs, meaning "Great idea!")
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Smart I use as "bright" and "intelligent"
But, also aware of its meaning as a stinging sensation one gets with a dermal abrasion.
Common put down in my youth centered on that meaning.
"She's very smart."
"Yeah, where the skin's off!"
Also, when, say, someone has a coordinated ensemble I'd say "You look very smart." Which would be taken as meaning the entire look makes a particularly good impression.
The phrase is not heard often but the meaning is clear and the person to whom it is addressed knows exactly what's meant and is pleased.
wow
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I've often heard smart to mean the initial feeling of a stinging or burning hurt. A pain that comes on really quickly, like carpet burn as an example. If the pain stays then it no longer smarts but aches, or whatever other description pains have.
"You look really smart in that suit" has fallen out of use. I would say that it was mostly said in my parent's generation (over 50).
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Carpal Tunnel
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To respond to initial post...Max, perhaps he didn't give you the best example with smart but I can understand what he was talking about.
Just this week we discussed blinkers/blinders. If a guy made a joke and said a person didn't see what was coming because he had his "blinkers on" NOBODY in Québec would get it because they would automatically think the guy was in his car and had his turning lights on.
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
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"Dress" would now be my word of choice (in UK) over "Frock" which sounds old fashioned
What about the diference between BE and AE in the meaning of pants? It is my understanding that in the UK, if one goes into a shop and asks to see pants, one is directed to underwear instead of trousers, as would happen in the USA. Also, the streamlined fairings around aircraft wheels are spats in the UK, and pants in the USA, where the term "spats" is archaic. And, as we all know, we can't have archaic and eat it too.
Now, not being a transvestite, don't one of you Brits call me a frocking idiot!
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Carpal Tunnel
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The dictionary gives the first meaning of smart as the sensation of pain, it then gives smart as slang for intelligent.
The teachers gave lazy students blows to various parts of the anatomy. First their backsides smarted, then their brains learned how to avoid punishment, and the students then were "smart."
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Carpal Tunnel
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in the USA, the term "spats" is archaic
Oh Gawd! You're making me feel old, *old, OLD!!!!!
Could not find "spats" on the Shorter OED-CD or through Atomica.
However, Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language (1978) has "spats" defined as noun (Colloq)<spatterdash - a legging a gaiterlike covering for the instep and ankle.
My Dad wore spats which were made of a soft felt in colors to compliment or contrast with the shoe/trouser color. They buttoned on the outside of the instep and protected the shoe top and ankle and provided some warmth in winter.
Only place I see them now is in "period" movie dramas.
But there is no other word that is specific to them
Is it because spats are no longer in fashion that the word has become archaic?
That is until some designer revives spats as a fashion statement or fad?
wow
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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DELETED: Garynamy does it better !!
<<Darling>>
Ro, you are a trip!
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