Have y'all heard these?

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LONDON (Reuters) - Last year it was "sexing up;" in 1993 Britons were "having it large" and in 1980 it was all about "power dressing."

Now "Chavs" -- the name given to British teenage delinquents who have a penchant for flashy gold jewelry, white trainers, clothes with prominent logos and Burberry baseball caps -- is set to be the next buzzword, according to a new book.

Author Susie Dent argues every year one word is born into the English language which says something about the preoccupations of the time.

"The word chav was virtually unknown until this year but it is rapidly gaining currency," Dent said.

In 1920 the post-war buzzword was "demob;" in 1958 it was "beatnik" while "miniskirt" was the hot word of 1965, according to Dent's book "Larpers and shroomers: the language report" which is published on Tuesday.

Other contenders for this year's buzzword include "retrosexuals" -- men who spend as little time and money as possible on their appearance.

"Chav" is thought to be derived from the Romany word for a child.

Dent has also identified some inventive new business phrases such as "dropping your pants," which refers to lowering the price of a product in order to close a sale, while "prawn sandwich man" is a corporate freeloader.

Okay--is there anyone in the world who actually eats prawns on a sandwich???

first, the engish eat any number of weird things on sandwiches,
second, shrimp (salad) sandwiches are not really weird. (at least not in north east)

nor are sandwiches with grilled shrimp and veggies (sort of like an very upscale MickyD's fried fish sandwich.) or for that matter, while i've never had a fried shrimp sandwich, i have had and enjoyed fried clam sandwiches. (more a NE thing than a NY thing, but not unknown here in big apple.)

an uncle by marrage, when in the UK, took a photo of a sandwich shop menu board-- to show the weird selections..

avacado and banana headed the list. everyone from hubby's side laughed-- and pointed out 'banana sandwiches!'

well, in my family, banana sandwiches were a favorite! one man's weird is a another woman's delight!

i suspect english prawn sandwiches are 'prawn salad' chopped prawns, dressed with mayonaisse, pickles and capers, and chopped veggies, and smeared on toast or bread.

not that different from tuna sandwiches when you think about it.

who actually eats prawns on a sandwich?

I've done so. Vietnamese banh mi (sandwiches). They were shelled.

banana sandwiches!

Didn't Elvis Aron eat fried banana sammiches?

the great one ate peanut butter and banana sandwiches. BP is such a strong flavor, and the main ingredient of such a sandwich that they are BP and banana sandwiches, not banana sandwiches.

banana sandwich's, on our house, were:
open faced,
made on whole wheat bread,
with lettuce and salt and pepper (salt you can pass on, a dust of fresh black pepper is a must.)

when indulging, they could be closed (2 slices of bread)
the bananas are slices, and slightly mashed onto the bread, topped with lettuce and seasoning.

PB sandwiches come as:
PB and Jelly (grape and strawberry the most common jelly)
PB and bacon
PB and Banana
PB and fluff (truly for the sweet tooth!) (fluff is marshmallow merique sold in jars like jelly)

and esoteric personal or family favorites, like
PB and olives
or
PB and sharp cheddar cheese(one of my personal childhood favorites)
or what ever you (or yours) chose.

PB sandwiches are made on white bread (plain or toasted) and the main ingredient is the PB--

Banana and mustard sandwiches for me, thank you very much.

I love banana and pb sandwiches. open face, please.

One of my aunts used to use a thin layer of 'peany blutter' on club sammiches. It adds just a little touch of flavor. Yum. I'm getting hungry!

I LOVE toasted peanut butter, banana and crispy bacon sandwiches. Mmmmmmmm.

Reverting to the original question, prawn sandwiches are very popular here in the UK. They are usually whole prawns with mayo and lettuce and presented between two slices of bread. There are prawns and prawns of course. We're not talking king prawns. Open sandwiches were not really known in the UK until probably the late 1950s when they were introduced from Scandinavia, but I would say they haven't really caught on here.

Can't stand banana sandwiches. Can't stand peanut butter sandwiches. A mix of the two must be frightful.

Reverting to the original question

That *wasn't the original question.

[burberry]original question[/burberry]

I have heard of beatnik and miniskirt.

That *wasn't the original question.

No... but the original question appeared to be rhetorical. The second, to which I was referring, was graced with three (count them) question marks. So it couldn't *possibly have been rhoticoral (sorry, I seem to be getting some interference from another thread).

the original question appeared to be rhetorical.

I suppose, if you take it merely at its literal value. Underlying it is the notion that it seems a little presumptuous to declare a word the next big buzzword if nobody's ever heard of it.

True, presumptuous indeed.

“Having it large” and “power dressing” have somewhat of a familiar ring to them. Not having a context for them, I can only guess what their specific meanings are. But on the surface, they seem to have a meaning cognate to the American terms “Livin’ large” and “dressing for success”.

Although it may be gaining currency, I’ve never paid for “Chavs”. I’d be interested to know its complete derivation, though. I’d also like to know what “demob” means, as well as “larpers” and “shroomers”. Of course, one might guess that “shroomers” may allude to either magic mushrooms, or nuclear war.

“Retrosexuals” doesn’t seem to quite fit the definition given for the word. Instead, it brings to mind sexual values from an earlier time that have a conservative leaning.

”Dropping your pants” doesn’t seem to fit its definition either, unless, of course, it’s cognate to the American term “bending over”.

Do corporate freeloaders in the UK eat a lot of prawn sandwiches? Or is corporate pay considered to be a type of insubstantial chum, so to speak, doled out to those who only want to make the minimal effort? Now that I think about it, perhaps “prawn sandwich” is cognate to the idea of a “fish sandwich” as in: “you can give a person a fish (modernized to ‘fish sandwich’) for a meal, or you can teach a person to fish and feed them for a lifetime.” I’m a tofu, chicken, or beef person myself. Fish!

Now, with all that said, one of the best sandwiches I ever had was a peanut butter and ‘nanner sandwich with lots of honey. Mmmm-mmmmmm!

I’d also like to know what “demob” means

After WW2 the troops were demobilised - most of them - given a 'demob suit' for use in seeking employment in 'civvy street' and set adrift.

Chav seems to be catching on - it is much the same as Pikey used to be and is, I suppose, similar to what USn would call 'trailer trash'.

Any company gathering that includes a sandwich lunch is almost certain to feed you prawn and mayonnaise sandwiches.

As for retrosexuals, perhaps that refers to a mythical time when men were men and women were non-aspirational sex/mother-objects happy to find a bread winner even if he wasn't too clean and presentable. Almost certainly, a sexually successful retrosexual hasn't existed since the stone age and probably not even then! Actually, that makes even less sense than the rest of it - what on earth would a stone age retrosexual look like? Mumble, mumble...must go and shave.

After WW2 the troops were demobilised - most of them - given a 'demob suit' for use in seeking employment in 'civvy street' and set adrift.

Thanks, dxb. That’s interesting!

I’ve never heard the word “Pikey” either. What is its derivation?

Any company gathering that includes a sandwich lunch is almost certain to feed you prawn and mayonnaise sandwiches.

Well, I guess that sinks the “fish sandwich” possibility.

Yep, Dixbie has it right. Chavs were/are pikeys' kids. A good argument for eugenics laws, IMHO ... The fashion statement that goes with the term today is godawful - burberry and more of the same. People who believe (like me) that the chav clothing and life styles are rubbish refer to them as "chavscum"

If you really, really need to know more (and you don't, you know you don't) then go to the official chavscum website at (believe it or not) http://www.chavscum.co.uk/

We used to have quite a few tea rooms in Richmond where lunch was served. Lunch, not tea. One was called the Clover Room, and one of its specialties was the shrimp salad sandwich made of chopped shrimp, a little celery, mayo and lettuce on a choice of toasted or untoasted white bread. The shrimp salad was thick and yummy. My figure was slender, if not yummy, and I never gave the high caloric content of the mayo a single thought.

Every now and then I make my own shrimp salad sandwiches, but the lack of the Clover Room itself somehow diminishes my enjoyment. To avoid continuing a food thread, what's another word for melancholy over the loss of the good in the old days?

retrosexual owes its definition, perhaps its very existence, to last year's buzzword, metrosexual.

I would assume that 'dropping your pants' is the equivalent of putting out, I mean selling out your values, to get what you want.

metrosexual

The definition I’ve heard for the buzzword ‘metrosexual’ is when heterosexuals (particularly males) affect a homosexual appearance in both style of dress and mannerisms. Wikipedia indicates that the word was originally coined in 1994 by British journalist Mark Simpson, who defines it as:

“an urban heterosexual male with a strong aesthetic sense who spends a great deal of time and money on his appearance and lifestyle. He is the fashion-conscious target audience of men's magazines.

Regardless of which definition is correct, as I mentioned regarding the word ‘retrosexual,’ metrosexual doesn’t seem to fit its definition. Metrosexual would seem to imply a sexuality specifically pertaining to an urban environment (or perhaps a railway environment), which is distinctly different from hetero-, homo-, or bi- sexuality (all of which encompass the act of sex). Metrosexuality seems to deal only with appearance and only marginally pertains to an urban environment.

I love banana sandwiches, but it would never have occurred to me to mix them with peanut butter. But then to my ears the US staple peanut butter and jelly sandwich sounds bizarre. To me the primary meaning of jelly is what I believe is known as jello in the US.

Bingley

I can imagine why a peanut butter and jello sandwich wouldn't sound all that appetizing! ~Horrors~

Well, toasted peanut butter, banana and strawberry jam sandwiches are simply delicious. Add bacon to that and I'm stuffed for the day.

You guys have inadvertantly brought up a guilty pleasure of mine. I don't have these often, you can imagine the arteries clogging just reading this mixture, but every once in a while I make a special detour to pick up the ingredients for the next morning's breakfast.

Aha! Perhaps you can understand, as few can, why the thin layer of peanut butter on a club/bacon, lettuce, tomato sammich makes it taste soooooo much better!?