#69101
05/07/2002 7:57 AM
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 148
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Some friends and I invented this word some time ago, and I think it needs a wider user-base. Mainly, it's used as a superlative for our common derogatory term, "dodgy" [which I believe is akin to 'sketchy', for those USns out there, and is pretty close to shonky]. Thus a really bad used-car salesman might be fronky.
Conveniently, however - as we discovered one evening on a drive - it also fits in very well with known quotes such as "Play that fronky music white boy."
go forth, my little word, and be used!
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#69102
05/07/2002 11:02 AM
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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'sketchy'
Sketchy? I think this USn understands dodgy before he understands sketchy. Am I being affected by my status as geezer or is there a better word for this in USn? I usually think of used car salesmen as being sleazy.
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#69103
05/07/2002 12:19 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819
old hand
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old hand
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"Play that fronky music white boy."
I'm sure the lovers of the music of Cesar Fronk will thonk you for that!
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#69104
05/07/2002 2:03 PM
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 320
enthusiast
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enthusiast
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Here's another USn geezer checking in. To me dodgy sounds British. I would use sketchy . A search of past posts shows frequent use of both words.
Another apparently made-up word we use is grody, similar in meaning to gross or grubby.
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#69105
05/07/2002 2:15 PM
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Innerestin, Slithe. To me sketchy merely means poorly defined. Dodgy would mean somewhat suspect, but I don't think I would use it in this context. A used car salesman's techniques might be dodgy, but not the UCS his own sef.
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#69106
05/07/2002 4:28 PM
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Carpal Tunnel
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Is a German beer. Over their they like their Fronk in steins monstrously.
TEd
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#69107
05/07/2002 8:12 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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I think the term "fronk" is favored among the young UHB's in New York City. It's so very metropolitan.
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#69108
05/08/2002 1:00 AM
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Is a German beer. Over there they like their Fronk in steins monstrously.  LOL! That's Fronk in schteens, to you!  The Only WO'N!
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#69109
05/08/2002 4:30 AM
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In reply to:
A used car salesman's techniques might be dodgy, but not the UCS his own sef.
You wouldn't describe him as a dodgy character, then? How about iffy? Does that ring any transatlantic bells? I've always been much amused by a bank here called Bank IFI. (I believe it's an acronym but no idea what for.)
Bingley
Bingley
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#69110
05/08/2002 9:07 AM
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 148
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An American exchange student over here used sketchy, so that's my only knowledge of it; sorry if it was a little localised! Iffy is a great word; I'd use it in relation to food I wasn't sure I'd like to meet... and dodgy is a pretty generic term, here: people, ideas, situations... anything that appears to be dubious is dodgy !
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#69111
05/08/2002 9:55 AM
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sorry if it was a little localised!
Dunno if it's localized. It just hasn't made its way into my own personal lexicon. I don't think we tend to get much localized new slang these days. Things get created at whatever level and swapped around in the great American melting pot, the colleges and universities. You might get some lower class ghetto stuff stays localized and there's always old regionalisms that hang on, but even they are dying out. Anyone knows Bostonese know if they still talk about frappes?
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#69112
05/08/2002 10:38 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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My dad used to use the phrase "a sketchy character" meaning someone who looked a little disreputable. One time there was a cartoon in the paper or the New Yorker where two people (who were drawn well in the cartoon) were looking at another person (drawn sloppily) and one was saying "he looks like a sketchy character to me."
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#69113
05/08/2002 10:54 AM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,074 Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Anyone knows Bostonese know if they still talk about frappes?
Beats me. [pa-da-bom]
Certainly they did as recently as ten years ago.
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#69114
05/08/2002 11:17 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 428
addict
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Anyone knows Bostonese know if they still talk about frappes?
Some do, anyway. I had a great experience about a year ago in upstate New York. A friend and I were getting ice cream, and he asked for a chocolate frappe. The look on the cashier's face was priceless, like he asked her for a hot fudge sundae with anchovies and motor oil. Lucky I was there to translate.
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#69115
05/08/2002 1:58 PM
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there to translate
Or, when desiring a Coke® ordering a "tawnic".
We were in South Dakota, I think it was, once and ordered a black cow. We were told in no uncertain terms that they didn't do that sort of thing (with a perceived under text of what kind of preverts do you take us for!?) but were happily given a root beer float.
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#69116
05/09/2002 12:46 AM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819
old hand
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old hand
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Fronk is also a Russian fragrance. Three wise cosmonauts took fronk incesnse in Mir.
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#69117
05/09/2002 12:59 AM
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Posts: 477
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I usually think of used car salesmen as being sleazy
In the 80s, in Oz, there was a comedy TV show (quite ahead of it's time, IMHO) called "Australia: You're standing in it" which featured a couple of Used Car Salesmen Wayne and Arthur Dodgy, henceforth known as the Dodgy Brothers. Their image, and the sketches they used to do, is probably the reason most Australians would think of UCSpeople as "dodgy".
In fact, after googling this, I've found that many Australian sites use the term "dodgy brothers" for any business which is very low standard eg. "the least said about the previous site created by some Dodgy Bros. Inc, the better". Pop culture strikes again, huh?
http://www.nostalgiacentral.com/tv/australiastand.htm reference at bottom of page
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#69118
05/09/2002 3:20 PM
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Posts: 1,819
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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In reply to:
Fronk is also a Russian fragrance. Three wise cosmonauts took fronk incesnse in Mir.
Geoff, go to jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.
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#69119
05/11/2002 5:40 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819
old hand
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old hand
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Geoff, go to jail.
But, but, Doc W, it was Mir-ly a pun! It shouldn't have sent you into orbit!
Now, as to the subject line, there were two brothers who started the Dodge Motor Company, now a part of Daimler/Chrysler. Any relationship here to used car salesmen and "dodgy?"
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#69120
05/11/2002 6:35 PM
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Posts: 200
enthusiast
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Three wise cosmonauts took fronk incense in Mir.
[grooooooaaaaaaannnnnn] I am fronkly incensed, & more.
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#69121
05/11/2002 11:53 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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This punishment must cease. I can't take any mir of it.
As far as dodgy and Dodge autos, there certainly ought to be a relation.
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#69122
05/12/2002 1:18 AM
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Posts: 200
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Yes, alex, there auto be a relation.
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