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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094 |
Otherwise we'd have to give the Sumerians great credit for their command of English words: wheat, lard and muck
No no, see, all of the words translated quite nicely together. . .
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 218
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 218 |
Today's capricious piffle is brought to you by the letter "N" and the number "5".
Thanks, N and 5. We appreciate your generosity. Smiles are well-earned on a Monday morning.
Brandon
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094 |
If you didn't know, N and 5 are also official sponsors of this year's Olympic games in Sydney, Australia.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
If you didn't know, N and 5 are also official sponsors of this year's Olympic games in Sydney, Australia.
Not to be confused with Sydney, Arkansas, which is hosting this year's Funny Car races, officially sponsored by WD 40.
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
Not to be confused with Sydney, Arkansas, which is hosting this year's Funny Car races, officially sponsored by WD 40.
Slightly YARTish, but: Do the Arkansans who are resident in Sydney refer to themselves as "Sydneysiders"? That is the designation for residents of Sydney, New South Wales, and it would be interesting to know if Sydney Arkansas has its own geographic sobriquet.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027 |
More and more intrigued that nobody so far has made the connection between "out of whack" and "whacky", I begin to suspect this is deliberate, to conceal the whackiness of the debate.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
More and more intrigued that nobody so far has made the connection between "out of whack" and "whacky", I begin to suspect this is deliberate, to conceal the whackiness of the debate.I suspect that no from the States has made that connection, because here we spell that word wacky. So for me to have made that connection, I would have been wackified (hi, Tsuwm).  But, speaking of across-the-pond differences, that reminds me of whine and whinge. I think they have essentially the same meaning, but very different pronunciations.
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 5
stranger
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OP
stranger
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 5 |
Greetings,
So far, I count two explanations for the origin of the phrase, "out of whack." The most colorful attributes the Sumerians, the other suggests baseball. Do not the Brits have a ball game predating baseball that may have provided the origin?
Kindest regards,
Elistar
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
okay, there is some evidence that whack, as a noun, had the sense of condition or state before the slang phrase was coined. W3 gives this citation:
<The tycoon is is fine whack -John Hay, 1905>
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
...Do the Arkansans who are resident in Sydney refer to themselves as "Sydneysiders"? Nope, when the town was settled by a pair of disgruntled Australians during the Great Sheep Famine in the last century, they at first called themselves "Sydneyoutsiders." Now the locals pretty much just go by "Bubba."
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