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#10428 11/16/00 04:27 AM
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1. Never have I heard the term "dink" used refer to catching a ride on a bike. Where is this term used in this way?

2. I have no idea of the derivation of the slang verb "to dink." It is most often used with the preposition "with" as in "don't dink with that" or the preposition "around" as in "are you just dinking around?" My sense of its meaning is to fiddle, to adjust, to play with, to tune, to mess with, to manipulate. Dinking with a radio is a way of changing the station received. Dunking with a carburetor is a way of getting it in tune with its companion carburetor. Come to think of it, dinking around with someone may mean to be fooling them, conning them, putting them on, leading them astray, playing with them, as in the usage "Are you serious or are you just dinking around with me?"




#10429 11/16/00 05:27 AM
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In reply to:

Never have I heard the term "dink" used refer to catching a ride on a bike. Where is this term used in this way?


Certainly here in Australia. Or more correctly, certainly amongst my schoolmates in Melbourne 30 years ago!

Now that you've introduced the extra words 'around' and 'with', I realize that I am familiar with what is apparently a local equivalent to your 'dinking around with' things or people, namely 'dicking around with' them. But it always has the 'around' - you never just 'dick' something, if you'll pardon the expression. If I dick someone around I am wasting his time, but if I dink him around I'm definitely helping him by giving him a lift on my bike.

I wonder whether the dink expression is a cleaned-up version of the former dink, or dick is a sullied version of dink, or one is a misquotation of the other and it stuck?

I haven't done an exhaustive search, but rather curiously, the following NZ-based website purportedly for Australians wanting to learn American slang defines 'dick someone around' as to mislead irritatingly.

http://psy.otago.ac.nz:800/r_oshea/slang.html#D


#10430 11/16/00 08:29 AM
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I've had a slight variation on Father Steve's post and several slight variations on the one posted by tsuwm.

I rather liked the abbreviated version - short, to the point and leaves it all to your imagination - why would anyone declare war on Quebec?

What really made me laugh in the elongated(!) version was the crack about who shot JFK. I was in Dallas in April this year and visited the Sixth Floor Museum - the Book Depository from which (as legend and the Warren Commission have it) JFK was shot. Believe me, after viewing the exhaustive, detailed and distinctly grisly exhibits there, it has to have been the grassy knoll, the grassy knoll! No, not where he was shot from, but who/what actually shot him!

Isn't it amazing how quickly these things propagate on the Web?



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#10431 11/16/00 08:40 AM
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Interesting ... I've only ever seen (well, heard, actually) this word ("Dink") being used as a derogatory racial slur. It must have made a huge impression - I can't actually remember which particular race it was being used to slag ... Vietnamese during the war, perhaps?



The idiot also known as Capfka ...
#10432 11/16/00 09:47 AM
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I've also received loads of variants; it is a good one! Features that IMHO should be included in addition to tsuwm's version are
(a) the ruling that Mel Gibson should be arrested for Treason and
(b) The sign-off:
Thank you for your cooperation and...have a jolly nice day!

why would anyone declare war on Quebec?
Because it's French of course, CK. Pay attention!
(not that the English are in any way bad losers, of course)

It'd be a very easy war to win if we started it on Moving Day, hein, bel?
http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Board=miscellany&Number=8353


#10433 11/16/00 10:01 AM
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Well folks, I have to say that if I cycled up to someone around here and offered them a dink they'd either ask which pub we were going to or punch my lights out.


Other than in the "double income no kids" context, I think it has no recognised meaning in England (can't speak for the rest of the UK). The tendency would therefore be to treat it as modern slang and possibly a euphemism, depending on the looks of the person talking.

(and probably full-on cycling gear is even more dodgy than XC chookman gear on that front!)


#10434 11/16/00 10:22 AM
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Thanks tsuwm. Now if only the US would take it seriously!


#10435 11/16/00 10:58 AM
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FishonaBike - very English name, that!, said:

why would anyone declare war on Quebec?
Because it's French of course, CK. Pay attention!
(not that the English are in any way bad losers, of course)


Sorry, merde, badly worded subtle humour. Well, okay, not so subtle. But definitely badly worded. Should reread my posts before posting.

Interesting ... the English usually got to write history (spoils of the victor, so to speak). Given my personal mongrel ancestry, I'd be hard put to know who to root for (Americanism) - Montcalm or Wolfe. Was there another choice?





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#10436 11/16/00 03:54 PM
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On the other hand Shanks

I think we should hold back on Quebec. They seem such nice people and they have such a hard time moving house. It would be a shame to spoil their fun!


#10437 11/16/00 03:58 PM
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Oh all right, then. What I want to know is, if they'r really French, then how come I don't hear about their wine or their whine (truckers blocking ports)? And where are the pronographic films masquerading as nouvelle vague? And the lousy pop music - oh wait a second - Celine Dion! I take it back - they must be French.


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