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#7512 10/19/2000 11:29 PM
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mav, don't confuse me now, after all these kind elucidators' posts.
(Yorkshire doesn't count)


#7513 10/20/2000 9:36 AM
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There are parts of the UK where the normal pronunciation of book is not the short book that rhymes with hook, but is rather the long booook.

Lancashire is one such place (although with three, rather than four "o"s ) and chook is pronounce herealmost like "chuck". Whilst not everyday parlance, it is not infrequently used as a mild term of endearment.

In Northamptonshire (and Leicestershire, which is next door) the most common expression - used by all to all, regardless of sex - is "My duck." (pronounce "me dook" - rhymes with book)
Why are fowl seen as an apt metaphor for friendly humans? Most of the fowl I've come across are just that!
(perhaps there is a sociological eggquation to explain it )


#7514 10/20/2000 2:25 PM
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booook

Although RhubC's quite right in emphasizing that this is a Northern (English) thing, here's a very entertaining pronunciation guide to another well-known regional accent.
http://www.virtualgaz.co.uk/gazzapage.htm
I recommend that you all give it a blast, even if you've no interest at all in the field, nor knowledge of how it should sound!



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that loon is a aquatic bird

Yes, belM, I was expecting that. Hang on, I just found the second definition:

Main Entry: loon
Function: noun
Etymology: of Scandinavian origin; akin to Old Norse lOmr loon
Date: 1634
: any of several large birds (genus Gavia) of Holarctic regions that feed on fish by diving and have their legs placed far back under the body for optimal locomotion underwater


"optimal locomotion underwater"
"feed on fish"

Do you think hoons or chooks have their legs placed further back under the body?



#7516 10/20/2000 2:43 PM
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In French Québec we also use 'mon canard' (my duck) as a term of endearment - but just for men since this is a male noun. Women are called 'ma poulette' (my little chickie).

Birdies, now there IS something cute about about birds, but we also have a term we use for someone we are friendly with: 'mon choux'. Mon choux means 'my cabbage'. Why a vegetable that gives you gas is a term of endearment for men I don't….wait, hold on a minute there…men, gas, men, gas, men, gas,…hmmm, well alright, maybe if fits .



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...his one dollars to perform?

Pun my sole, mav! I know you're not fishing for compliments, but you deserve pride of plaice for that one.
And one good tern deserves another.



#7518 10/20/2000 3:17 PM
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mon choux

..so do you call women you are friendly with 'choux fleurs'?

another geezer/geyser/gasser


#7519 10/20/2000 3:22 PM
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Choupette (little cabbage) Much less gas involved


#7520 10/20/2000 7:33 PM
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Choupette

A delightful word!
Less gas involved? Well, so we are led to believe.

Hang on, bolt from the blue - "choux" also relates to sweet pastries such as eclairs, does it not?


#7521 10/21/2000 12:28 PM
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As endorsed by Five Bellies?


#7522 10/21/2000 12:59 PM
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I know that we have the bovine four stomachs; what the heck is the significance of "Five Bellies?"


#7523 10/21/2000 1:05 PM
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I didn't check the website, but assumed from the url that is referred to 'Gazza' - semi-legendary English footballer and all round lager lout, woman-beater, idiot (in the informal sense), but occasional genius on the field. Full name Paul Gascoigne. The accent in question would then be the Geordie one - for those who hail from the environs of Newcastle-upon -Tyne.

In any case, famously, Gazza's best friend is a Geordie of great girth, whose appetite and size have led to his being nicknamed 'Five Bellies' by his friends. I'm not even sure if Gazza and he are friends any more, but his association with the 'great' man has led to his becoming a minor league TV celebrity in his own right...

(You had to be there...)

cheer

the sunshine warrior


#7524 10/21/2000 1:09 PM
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>nicknamed 'Five Bellies'

I get it; one more than a cow!


#7525 10/21/2000 1:15 PM
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Who knows? Some Geordies seem to think the height of humour is farting a beat. (I said some godammit - I am not stereotyping here.) But this is probably true of some Brummies, Lancastrians, Cockneys and Prince Phillip, amongst other groups...

cheer

the sunshine warrior


#7526 10/22/2000 10:40 AM
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< farting a beat>

and now -- Le petomane (the Musical!!)


#7527 10/22/2000 7:10 PM
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>that loon is a aquatic bird

Loons - was also the name given to trousers with particularly wide legs. I remember cutting a slit in the legs of a pair of jeans and inserting lurid flowery fabric in a "V" shape to make the bell bottoms as wide as possible without falling over whilst walking.


#7528 10/22/2000 7:40 PM
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Hi Fish. Sorry it took so long to answer, been off up north for a bit of weekend R&R.

Choux à la crème (cream filled) or Choux à la costarde (custard filled) are the pastries. You have to be specific or else you will get the veggie (which is NOT a wonderfully rich, flavourful dessert )



#7529 10/22/2000 9:13 PM
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...choux...You have to be specific or else you will get the veggie (which is NOT a wonderfully rich, flavourful dessert

To my ear "choux pastry" always suggests something as tough as old boots.

I guess there's vast potential for humorous language-based misunderstandings. I often recall my very first evening in France some 16 years ago, when my girlfriend (now wife) and I were perusing the dessert menu. She pointed to a particular item on the list and asked the waiter "Est-ce pomme de terre?", to which he responded, chuckling and pointing skywards, "Non, c'est pomme à l'air!"

[Explanation for non-French speakers: pomme de terre - literally "apple from ground" - is French for potato.]


#7530 10/23/2000 5:13 AM
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Well, I vaguely remember being taken in my teens to see a one-woman show by a famous actress whose name now escapes me based on the letters of Liselotte, a German princess who married Louis XIV's brother, the Duke of Orleans. Now, whether it was the Duke himself or one of his friends I now forget, but anyway someone in that circle was described as being able to be able to fart recognisable tunes.

Bingley


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#7531 10/23/2000 3:29 PM
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pomme à l'air

Brilliant!
Perhaps there's a poorly-translated biography of Isaac Newton where it's a potato that lands on his head?
That would have got him thinking.

Or concussed him.



#7532 10/23/2000 3:34 PM
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Sorry it took so long to answer, been off up north for a bit of weekend R&R.

I think it's allowed! It's about time I tailed off on the current posting frenzy, actually (sighs of relief all round)....

Just having so much fun!

By the way, I have an uncle who lives in Toronto (boo hiss!). Stayed with him way way back, and we spent some time just a tiny distance north of there - Muskoka??
It was a great holiday.



#7533 10/23/2000 3:37 PM
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shanks,
Yes, Gazza was the original "legend in his own lunchtime", wasn't he?

Could probably be called Five Chins these days.

P.S. I don't know why the page is called gazza.htm - must have some Brummie meaning of which I'm unaware.


#7534 10/23/2000 5:08 PM
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some Brummie meaning of which I'm unaware.

Well, if there is anyone else out there who hasn't yet checked the site Fishy kindly ponted to, they should hit the doo-dah, an gew there stroitway - it ennarf goin ter maek yer laff, less youra nanna!


#7535 10/23/2000 9:50 PM
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being able to be able to fart recognisable tunes

That would certainly be a show-stopper!
Or would the "show-stopper" be a cork?




#7536 10/24/2000 5:07 AM
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I hasten to clarify that it was not the lady herself who demonstrated this ability, she merely mentioned it as a dinner party entertainment.

Bingley


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#7537 10/24/2000 3:25 PM
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being able to be able to fart recognisable tunes


In that wonderful saga "The Good Ship Venus", one of the mates (I think the third mate, in the version I knew) claimed that "For a gallon of ale / He would sit on a pail / And play Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata.

The mate's name, naturally, was Carter.



#7538 10/24/2000 4:01 PM
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it was not the lady herself

But of course it wasn't. Though if it was, methinks she would make a fine companion for Five Bellies.

What's the equivalent of "Ladies don't sweat, they glow" for farting, I wonder?




#7539 10/24/2000 4:09 PM
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lurid flowery fabric

"loons" would be short for "pantaloons" here, wouldn't it?

Sad to say I was just slightly too young to take full part in the 70s. Though if I had been old enough I may never have come out alive, let alone as the fantastically well-adjusted and well-balanced bikefish that I am.
...


#7540 10/24/2000 4:29 PM
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>"loons"

I never thought of the pantaloon connection. Don't worry if you missed them, they'll be back in fashion before you hit your dotage. The thing about fashion is that everything seems to come round and round ... and round again.


#7541 10/25/2000 7:35 AM
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The thing about fashion is that everything seems to come round and round ... and round again.

On this assumption, I still have an excellent suit, bought in 1977 for my parents golden wedding, which has the most incredible flares, and lapels that make the suit dangerous to wear in high winds. Unfortunately, by the time fashion comes round, I fear I will have become round - to the extent that attire that was unbearable will have become unwearable.



#7542 10/25/2000 1:25 PM
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At a restaurant last year, a female companion said she needed to go 'make the lav smell of roses'.

So: "Animals fart, men have flatulence, women smell of roses"

Works for me.



the sunshine warrior

ps. But then, she also used the word 'mincer' for a gay person, so I don't know how reliable her grasp of the idiom is...


#7543 10/25/2000 1:55 PM
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Animals fart, men have flatulence, women smell of roses

Brilliant and definitive! Case is closed.

P.S. I know gays who refer to themselves as "mincers" (and "queens"), so maybe your friend's grasp of idiom ain't that bad.



#7544 10/25/2000 2:23 PM
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My favourite gay man frequently refers to himself as "a homo," and sometimes as "a queer," which shocked me at first, as I have been carefully brought up to believe that these were perjorative terms.
However, he explained to me that he, and others of the gay community, were trying to rehabilitate the words, and to remove the perjorativity (??) from them as a tactic against homophobia.
I pointed out that it would just mean that other perjoratives would be conjured up, but he holds that the main thing is, "to keep the buggers on the run!" - which I thought was a neat way of turning yet another perjorative!


#7545 10/25/2000 2:38 PM
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rhu,

just a note of pedantry since you bring it up. the word you want is PEJorative, and it does take the form pejoration for the process of worsening.


#7546 10/25/2000 3:18 PM
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Thank you, tsuwm - I stand rightly corrected!
It looks as though I need to get my "Rs" out of it!


#7547 10/25/2000 8:06 PM
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Rhuby, you said: the most incredible flares, and lapels that make the suit dangerous to wear in high winds.

So, if you were lofted, then we could say Red (Rhub.) sails in(to) the sunset. Talk of getting your R's out! And never mind a spelling error, Sugar--we love you anyway.


#7548 10/31/2000 2:46 PM
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Nice one, Jackie!


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Since today (in my reading, anyway) seems to be a day of resurrected threads, I thought I'd do this one. Don't ask how I found it--too weird. (Oh, ok, I had it stored in my computer--but now have no idea why! )


#7550 01/19/2002 6:08 PM
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I just love these re-runs on the board. It would take forever to go back and read everything and by the time I did, I would be so far behind on reading the current posts. I want to know where all these people have gone. Maverick! belMarduk! Marty! Shanks! Fishonabike! Rhuby! Come back![sob]


#7551 01/19/2002 7:45 PM
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Dear consuelo: I'm not sure how RC will react to your post. He posted less than a week ago. But we would all enjoy his posting more often.


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