I heard someone use the phrase getting scratch recently, which was new to me. Is this known to all my more worldly s&b?

Do you also know or use peeling out?

And do you have any alternative expressions for this action?

Aunt mav, are you getting a bit behind the times in your old age?
I think I know what getting scratch means, but I'll leave it for someone who is sure. Peeling out: heck, yeah! I've heard that all my life. I'm a South End girl, where we like to drag race down neighborhood streets. If you peel out, you hit the accelerator hard enough to at least make the tires spin in place and squeal, and perhaps even peel some rubber off them as you depart. One alternative is burn rubber.

scratch is money, or its equivent.
unless, one is scratching an itch--then its sex

Anyone who has lots of scratch is well heeled.
Yup, that's what I thought. And...anyone whose tires have a lot of scratch(es) might call them well-peeled...

i think we could do more with scratch-- and itch. while getting scratch is getting money, it is really "getting the means to satify my itches.. and then if Dr. Bill (or someone) will be so kind to give us the medical term for itch.. (latin) and we see the root..

scratch has lots of intering related meaning; scratching an itch, or old scratch, or getting scratch.. itch too, the classic seven year itch...

i think there is an opportunity here to scratch.

I don't know about y'all, but here in Oklahoma, scratch is synonymous with chicken feed as in "chicken scratch". So, if you aren't getting scratch, your chickens are hungry.

the idiom i am most familiar with, is "that ain't chicken feed" to express something that is more expensive than it aught to be.

can any one help on the word latin.. it begins with a p (er) i think..

websters New World has itch and scratch as a set.. and includes for itch.. hankering.. as in a itch for travel..

i'll be at work again tomorrow, and busy, so i don;t expect to be around till the evening.

"Peeling out" in the extended sense of any fast, emphatic departure (not necessarily by motorcycle), as in "This party's a drag; I'm peeling out of here." Query: would "blowing out of here" be from the same idea, or from the concept "to blow it off"?

Scratch meaning "chicken feed", as in "You don't know scratch, Jack."

can any one help on the word latin.. it begins with a p (er) i think..

Is it pruritus you're thinking of, Helen? Methinks that's the medical term for itch.

On the subject of colloquial terms for money, has anyone ever seen or heard "getus" for money? I have seen this on the internet but never heard it in conversation, and it mystifies me. From context it seems to mean money. I wonder if it is a ocnflation of "get us" -- i.e. you'll need "getus" to get us anything at the store.

mmmm, all very interesting - thanks!

The person who used this turn of phrase indicated it is common parlance and a synonym for peeling out or burning rubber in their community. I will try and find out if this usage comes from the well-healed type origin...

getting scratch = getting bupkus = winding up with ziltch = getting nada

Also (may be a Canadianism only)

getting scratch = winding up even

getting nada

The image of tyres burnt smooth and getting nowhere suddenly made me realise that the usage I heard probably derives from just that, doesn't it? - burning rubber but getting nowhere fast.

and BTW, wicked niece, that is one good reason for hanging with younger people...

I know this is not wordish but our title ‘vroom with a hue’ reminded me of when my son was about three years old. We were not very rich (single parent et al) during those peanut butter years and all I could afford was a car that was just this side of kicken’ the bucket.

Well one day, Jon was playing with his dinky cars when he picked one up and started hacking and weezing: Hack-hack- phlegmy cough, phlegmy cough, hack hack, wheeze…

“What on earth are you doing,” I asked.

“Well Mom,” he says like it is plainly evident, “I have to start the car, don’t I”

It was definitely time to buy a new car.

Another phrase I've heard for "burning rubber," which at least rhymes (kindasorta) with your "getting scratch" is "laying a patch." The sense here being, I believe, to spin the tires and leave a patch of rubber on the road - I've always liked the phrase because it takes a moment to puzzle out but gives a very clear image of what's happened once you do.

Thanks, all - what about the top of the world, do any of you guys know or use these expressions, or other variants instead?

the top of the world

fine sense of topography

http://www.bacchus-marsh.com/Files/Part 6.htm

'Nuff said.

Looks like all the posters came up to scratch!
Bye...

yes thank you nancy-- and did any one look at the word?

itch and scratch are linked as love and marriage.. and itch, itch is pruitus.. which also gives us pruient.. which is the latin for itch.. to itch, to long for, to be lecherous.. from the latin to burn..

and to scratch.. it to statisfy the itch.. to have some scratch, is to have the means to satisfy an itch.. my oh my.. itchy palms anyone? you might be coming into money..

and other itches? or does any have an itch? (and do we want to know!)

Amy Tan, in her first book, (the woman warrior(?))pointed out that the chinese word for itch has the same prurient connotations.. does this hold true for other languages?

do you think maybe you can find nothing to support it, beause the a word itch in that sense is considered rude or vulgar?

to have an itch (all depending on the tone) could express horniness.. is perhaps rekakreka used rudely, or sexually? is it impolite, (and so, rarely used?)

Surprised that nobody's mentioned scratch in its golfing connotation.....

We say "playing off scratch" when referring to a player without a handicap - would've thought this was a global saying.....

Sometime in the dim and distant past I mentioned my favourite made up word...'roonerspism' - surely "vroom with a hue" falls into this category?

And whilst on the subject....heard a childhood favourite again the other day after many years. The one about the guy with a toothache who, every time he broke wind said, "Honda!"

A case of "abcess makes the fart go Honda"

stales

to have an itch (all depending on the tone) could express horniness.. is perhaps rekakreka used rudely, or sexually? is it impolite, (and so, rarely used?

The Tempest, Act 2, Scene 2: STEPHANO [Sings]

The master, the swabber, the boatswain and I,
The gunner and his mate
Loved Mall, Meg and Marian and Margery,
But none of us cared for Kate;
For she had a tongue with a tang,
Would cry to a sailor, Go hang!
She loved not the savour of tar nor of pitch,
Yet a tailor might scratch her where'er she did itch:
Then to sea, boys, and let her go hang!

Itchy in Indonesian is gatal, which can also mean hankering after (usually sex or money).

By the way, isn't Old Scratch a euphemism for the Devil?

Bingley

Hi Bingley:

Brewer confirms Old Scratch/Old Nick for the Devil, from 'skratta', an old Scandinavian word for a goblin or monster (modern Icelandic 'skratti', a devil).

hmmm, the Itchy & Scratchy show takes on new meanings...!

Top of my head, and of course ICLIU, but doesn't the Devil's Dictionary often use "Old Scratch" for the devil? Was this perhaps a common US ruralism a century-plus ago?

in the story of the devil and Daniel Webster, the devil is frequently called old scratch.. it might well be from the scandinavian, but the relationship between itch (leacherous thought,) and scratch (satisfaction) would have contributed to it being thought an apt name.

Really??? I had assumed in the Devil & Daniel Webster story that they used old scratch to name the Devil because an old scratch gets all infected and oozy and downright nasty looking.

See now, you learn something new every day.

you learn something new every day

True, bel - now ifn I could only remember it!

fwiw, my original interlocutor tells me that in their neck of the woods "peelin' out" is associated with the sound of the action, whereas "gettin' scratch" is associated typically with the sight of the action - suggestive that it is the tyre tracks, or 'scratches' created by the ribs, that gave this usage.

But what a lovely thread this spun off to become - from West Coast wheelies to Icelandic devilry!

nancyk is right about pruritis. I knew that too, showing that you don't need an MD to translate the everyday into the arcane. A nurse can be just as unclear and exclusionary in her communication (nurse nancy, perhaps?).

A patient once asked me to stop using "necrotic" when talking to a student about her infected foot, when "dead" was what I really meant. Seems that the patients are on to us; we use language to obfuscate, to separate ourselves from the patient, to priviledge our communication. Sometimes they figure us out.

Ugh, I don't like that idea Max. I don't choose to be ill and do not go about shopping for sicknesses so I am definitely not a client.

Patient is the perfect word because
a) it IS the defination of someone needing medical attention
and
b) in most of today's hospitals you have to be patient to get that attention.

[beware, rant following]
Seriously, does it really make a difference. Things aren't always 'nicey-nice'. Why has it become wrong to say handicapped? It became "disabled" at one point and now has moved on to "differently-abled". In all honesty, a person in a wheelchair is not treated differently because he is now differently-abled instead of being handicapped. If you are prejudiced you will be prejudiced no matter what.

A friend of mine has been handicapped since childhood and he refers to himself as such. The people he knows also refer to themselves as such (yes I asked him).

I understand what people are trying to do...by taking away the word to which a certain stigma is attached people hope the stigma will be erased...but it doesn't work that way.

And it ticks me off that I can't say someone is "special" anymore. What is he, mentally handicapped, physically handicapped, emotionally handicapped or just a really great guy. Grrr.
[end rant]

EDIT: All right, I'm calm now. I have to admit that maybe it's a cultural thing. In French Québec we don't have euphemisms like those and I guess I just don't understand the use for them.

My sister, a psychiatric nurse, took great pains to disabuse me of the practice calling them "patients", she insists that they are "clients".

My wife, a professor of nursing at a university here, informs me that hospital nurses use either "clients" or "patients", the former somewhat more frequently, but that physicians never use the former term. An interesting dichotomy.

My wife, a professor of nursing at a university here, informs me that hospital nurses use either "clients" or "patients", the former somewhat more frequently, but that physicians never use the former term. An interesting dichotomy.

Actually, my friends who are doctors in Zild talk "patient" and think "debtor". The costs of being in general practice these days are very high ...

BTW, Faldage, what was with that link to the "Travels"?

(nurse nancy, perhaps?).

Nope. But it's amazing what one can pick up writing and editing hospital newsletters .

A friend of mine has been handicapped since childhood and he refers to himself as such. The people he knows also refer to themselves as such (yes I asked him).
I understand what people are trying to do...by taking away the word to which a certain stigma is attached people hope the stigma will be erased...but it doesn't work that way.

Now that I find interesting.
I am deaf in my left ear. (childhood scarlet fever.)
I am not hard-of-hearing, I am deaf in one ear.
So I have a disability.
I refuse to let my disability be a handicap.
In my youth I studied music and did concert work. Always right on pitch, too!
As a reporter I had a reputation for *the *most *accurate quotes and on several occasions my accuracy was tested by making tapes. I was spot on. So there! (ranting on ...) (Probably because I paid attention!)
My disability is annoying sometimes and inconvenient sometimes too, but *not a handicap.
Deafness is sometimes called "the silent disability" or "the unseen disability." You'll note, not handicap!

OED says (4th) a handicap is an encumberance or hinderance.

OED says disability is a lack of the ability to do something.
My deafness is an inability to hear in my left ear.
So I have a disability, not a handicap because I don't let it be!

(/rant & /rave)

But Wow, it is precisely the vehemence that you show that has made the word handicapped politically incorrect.

I am also deaf in one ear (bobbypin in my left ear when I was a toddler) and it is a disadvantage. You work around it and it does not affect your life but it would be a lie to say it is not there.

For example, when hunting for wood grouse it is important to listen for the soft thrumming they do. If it is on my left side I do not hear it because it is too soft to register in my other ear on the other side of my head. When locating/pinpointing something by sound only it is easier when you hear from both ears. I am not making it up it is a fact of biology and the reason why creatures have ears on both sides of the head.

The fact that you are a great musician does not negate the fact that you had to assimilate the music in only one ear. You do not know if you would have had an easier time of it if you had both ears since you only worked with the one.

What I am getting at is that handicapped came to have such a negative connotation that people switched over to the word disabled. Now, THAT word has a negative connotation and people have switched over to differently abled. We hear that term all the time.

Disabled has now become the politically incorrectly way of describing someone who is at some disadvantage.

I think that we should work on getting people to treat everybody with respect and true courtesy no matter what they look like or whether they have the use of all their appendeges, senses et all. Instead we focus on the words describing the state the person is in. As if changing the word will make people change their attitude.

Yet, CapK's recent usage of "___ challenged" is a bit more widespread and less disheartening (for me) than "differently abled"... aside from the fact that "dis-ing" anyone is not a "good" idea.

bel - Kinda makes me want to grow a third ear.

Kinda makes me want to grow a third ear.
Dear Heart, you already have one, and have had for years, if I'm not mistaken. Your hearing is different from most
peoples'. Inside and out. Love.

Dear belM - another thing we have in common. How nice!
You are right about sounds ... I always turn right, first, to locate a sound.
And it is annoying sometimes ... I got those fancy hearing aids that let me hear the sounds as if I had two good ears and the noise was, well, deafening! Had to give them back!

I was not a "great musician" (thank you for the compliment) but a better than average one I flatter myself.

I think that we should work on getting people to treat everybody with respect and true courtesy no matter what they look like or whether they have the use of all their appendeges, senses et all. Instead we focus on the words describing the state the person is in. As if changing the word will make people change their attitude.

Couldn't agree more heartily. And I am sorry I ranted on so opinionatedly. (sigh-e) Please forgive the dogmatic obstinancy which I recognize now but didn't at the time I wrote the post.
I listen and learn.
Aloha, wow.

I got those fancy hearing aids that let me hear the sounds as if I had two good ears

I didn't know those existed. Actually, I really can't complain. The only time it is a hassle is when I am in a meeting with loads of people and a 'soft-speaker' sits on my left. Then I have to "look" at what she is saying. Ooof, is that last sentence understandable?


BACK TO ORIGINAL THREAD DIRECTION...
I am presently reading Silas Marner by George Eliot in the 1800's. At one point a person goes out to sell a horse and his brother says he is gone to get the scratch to mean the money. He didn't mean it to break even though.

And, no I don't think I'd recommend the book. It is not a bad story but man, can that woman write run-on sentences. Sometimes a sentence can take up to half a page and veer to so many different subjects that you don't know what she is trying to say. Some I've had to reread several times.