Just Saying -- the soapbox thread

[zombie_rock123]

Well thats a shitter. So not only have I been arguably dull, Ive also been wrong

[madbean]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brass_monkey_(colloquialism)

I've heard the brass monkey story before, but it has been discredited.

Look up "etymology" sometime

Well you know what they say about the brass monkey. He's funky. He's a funky monkey.

[lars]

Well thats a shitter.

Funny choice of words. In another false-origin story, it's claimed that the acronym s.h.i.t. (ship high in transit) referenced an old shipping practice for transporting explosive methane-producing cargo up high so the ship didn't blow up (why do these stories almost always involve ships?). This is also a false etymology, but tons of people still believe it, "because it was on them Internets". Personally I find these kind of made-up stories distressing. Who is making this stuff up, and the better question is...why?? I would say, if anybody tells you a word or phrase came from old shipping practices, it's made up.

[alanp]

It says more about humans in general, I think. A good story will suck anyone in and cause them to suspend your sense of disbelief. (When Superman came out, with Christopher Reeve, how many people in the theatre were sitting there saying, but people can't fly!)

Pratchett and Cohen made a good argument for changing our scientific name from Homo Sapiens Sapiens, really wise man, to Pans Narrans, the storytelling chimpanzee.

[midwayfair]

Who is making this stuff up, and the better question is...why??

Because it's hilarious to fool gullible people whose BS detector is turned off all the time? It's not like false etymology actually hurts anyone.

[alanp]

https://www.etymonline.com/word/shit

It's actually derived from Old English scitan, and in turn from Proto-Germanic skit. That would have been my first guess -- Old English is a lot more different to modern english than people realise.

[midwayfair]

Almost every "bad" word in English is Anglo-Saxon, baring some corner cases that are loan words, like bint, which isn't even a bad word in the language it was borrowed from and is probably only used as an insult because of the likely way British soldiers uhhhh learned it.

[EBK]

Do they have "shag carpet" in the UK, and if so, does it mean the same as in the US?

On a flight back to the US from London several years ago, I noticed that the flight attendants made a special effort to call the in-flight meal "sausage and mash", presumably so some Americans wouldn't go into pervy creep mode at the sound of "bangers" being said by an attractive female.

[somnif]

Do they have "shag carpet" in the UK, and if so, does it mean the same as in the US?

On a flight back to the US from London several years ago, I noticed that the flight attendants made a special effort to call the in-flight meal "sausage and mash", presumably so some Americans wouldn't go into pervy creep mode at the sound of "bangers" being said by an attractive female.

"Shag" carpeting started in Europe, so presumably. The word derives originall from the Norse word for "Beard" via old English.

The sex connotation appears to come from an older phrase "shag your wick", straightening/trimming the wick of a candle that has been burnt and snuffed so that it will burn more cleanly upon re-lighting. This became slang for "getting it back up for round two", and eventually just for sex in general.

Etymology of slang is fascinating.

[Muadzin]

I have a university degree, I almost never use it.

A "university degree" -- do you mean a bachelor's or a doctorate? Because those aren't the same thing.

The Netherlands used a different system back then before adopting the bachelor/master degree system. There was only a single degree, so everyone graduated were called a doctorandus, or drs, or ingenieur (engineer) or ir in the case of a technical study. Doctorandus is still my official title. Since adopting the anglo-saxon model all those who have graduated previously can now call themselves master. So I'm now technically a M.A. master of arts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctorandus

[juansolo]

Bint is a bit regional, it's a derogatory term for a lady. Usually twinned with daft or silly.
Shagging is bonking here. We do have shag carpet.
For confusion, a fanny in the US is a bottom, in the UK it's a lady's front bottom.
One that I see a lot on US streams and TV is flicking the V. Which in the UK is akin to flipping someone the bird, which I assume is not what they're doing

[alanp]

The backwards V is the insulting version, I believe? Where the back of your hand is facing the other person?

And the American term "fannypack" is infinitely amusing to Commonwealth ears, since it pretty much translates as "c*** pack".

[mjg]

Not sure if it's true, but I like the story.  I've heard that the two (and later, one middle ) finger insult started out as three fingers.  Apparently the English soldiers would cut off the three middle fingers of French archers if they captured them.  It meant the archers could no longer arch, so they were now a useless soldier.  The French archers would insult the English at the start of battles by showing the three middle fingers. 

I'd like to believe it's true anyway,  it's too good a story. 

[juansolo]

The backwards V is the insulting version, I believe? Where the back of your hand is facing the other person?

Yep, the other way around is the traditional victory thing. Which gets confusing when you see Churchill flicking the backwards version one time... The backwards one is something to do with French archers I believe.

And the American term "fannypack" is infinitely amusing to Commonwealth ears, since it pretty much translates as "c*** pack".

They call them Bum bags here.

[EBK]

My wife told me somewhat recently that she wanted to buy a fanny pack.  I spit out my coffee, not because of what "fanny" means, but rather because it is such a hideous looking thing to want to wear.

On this fascinating topic of language and gesture differences, I just read something that I'm not sure I believe.  It is this:

The thumbs-up sign does not mean "that's great" in Australia as it does here [in the US]. There, it means "up yours" or the painful-sounding "sit on it." Basically, you are telling a person that you hope he gets something inserted up his bottom.

Is that really true?