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One of my holiday jobs was stacking supermarket shelves, and I seem to remember being told then there was a legal difference under consumer protection. Above a certain number to the pint? gallon? they were prawns, and below that they were shrimps. It made sense to me, or why is "shrimp" used as an insult for the smaller amongst us? You can't imagine a lager lout yelling "hey prawn" rather than "hey shrimp" can you?
Bingley
Bingley
The Olympic ceremony is just starting - we're promised plenty of seafood!
...and I clicked on this thread thinking it would be the perfect place to report on a piece of Olympic commentary:
'the team must be jubilating'
Aargh!
To utter sounds of joy or exultation; to make demonstrations of joy; to rejoice, exult. In recent newspaper use, sometimes, To celebrate a jubilee or other joyful occasion.
a1641 Bp. R. Montagu Acts & Mon. Such as Almighty God did+replenish+could not but jubilate. 1659 Hammond On Ps. lxxxiv. 3 To cry aloud, vociferate or jubilate. 1721 R. Keith tr. à Kempis' Vall. Lilies xxvii. O ye Cherubim and Seraphim+how fervently, and how excellently do ye sing and jubilate aloud before God. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. I. v. i, Hope, jubilating, cries aloud that it will prove a miraculous Brazen Serpent in the Wilderness. 1851 S. Judd Margaret iii. The birds are jubilating in the woods.
[OED]
It's a bit like "How to lie with Statistics" - it seems to be possible that any word we look at had a previous life, so you can always argue on favour of almost any word on those grounds. All you need is a big enough dictionary!
Who ever says jubilating these days. Surely it comes from the grand tradition of Colemanballs - I believe that Dan Quayle has a similar reputation in America.
Here's a selecton (some from the Private Eye website - they offer £10 for any you send in):
'There goes Juantorena down the back straight, opening his legs and showing his class'
(David Coleman at The Montreal Olympics)[I think that this is the original Colemanball]
'And for those of you who watched the last programme (Fanny and Johnny Craddock), I hope all your doughnuts turn out like Fanny's' (David Coleman at the start of Match of The Day)
'To play Holland, you have to play the Dutch.'
(Ruud Gullit)
"Sometimes in football you have to score goals."
THIERRY HENRY, Sky Sports
(Roger Main)
"Quinn, for the umpteenth time, got his first goal of the current campaign."
BRIAN MOORE, BBC Match of the Day
(Ian Walton)
"Michael Vaughan has a long history in the game ahead of him."
MARK NICHOLAS, Channel 4
(Anna Lomax)
"The Germans only have one player under twenty-two and he's twenty-three."
KEVIN KEEGAN, BBC News
(Steve Speight)
For more - check out this site:
http://www.siliconglen.com/jokes/colemanballs.html
You missed my all-time favourite - I am now jubilating(!) at the chance to add it:
'The bowler's Holding, the batsman's Willey.'
Bridget
Well spotted - what an omission!
football... and cricket...? here come some baseball quotes from Yogi Berra:
"It ain't over till it's over."
"This is like deja vu all over again."
"You can observe a lot just by watchin'."
on seeing a Steve McQueen movie: - "He must have made that before he died"
"If you can't imitate him, don't copy him."
"Baseball is 90% mental, the other half is physical"
Mrs. Lindsay - "You certainly look cool." - Yogi Berra - "Thanks, you don't look so hot yourself."
"Nobody goes there anymore; it's too crowded."
Interviewer - "Why, you're a fatalist !" - Yogi Berra - "You mean I save postage stamps ?
Not me."
"Slump ? I ain't in no slump. I just ain't hittin."
"When you come to a fork in the road, take it!"
'The bowler's Holding, the batsman's Willey.'
Now who's dwelling in the gutter??
>'The bowler's Holding, the batsman's Willey.'
Now who's dwelling in the gutter??<
Just visiting, Jackie! Some of my dearest friends live there...
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