English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

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kylecycler
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by kylecycler »

Oldjohnw wrote: 23 Sep 2021, 7:09am According to the OED stunning means extremely beautiful or attractive.
There was a fashion for a while for using the term 'achingly' beautiful but I haven't seen it recently. Maybe it just got too painful.
Mike Sales
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Mike Sales »

The PreRraphaelites called beautiful women stunners.
Here's one.
Stunner.jpg
Stunner.jpg (10.25 KiB) Viewed 672 times
Pale, full-lipped, and framed by waves of luxuriant hair, the women who posed for the Pre-Raphaelites inspired some of art history’s most striking images. With characteristic angular features and wistful expressions, these unintentional muses were ‘discovered’ in shops, alehouses, or simply the street — plucked from relative obscurity to animate a world of stately archetypes.

‘The stunners’ — as they collectively came to be known — animated some of the movement’s most celebrated images, becoming Arthurian heroines, Italian muses and drowning femme fatales. For some, the transformation was disconcertingly convincing: Lizzie Siddal notoriously courted death posing for Millais’ Ophelia, having spent hours submerged in a cold tin bath.
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
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kylecycler
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by kylecycler »

661-Pete wrote: 23 Sep 2021, 10:58am
AlanD wrote: 23 Sep 2021, 2:19am I also hate the overuse of “passionate” in the context of promoting an interest.
In French, passionné can simply mean 'keen' - as in "il est passionné de cyclisme". I don't see anything wrong with adopting that meaning into English - although I'm well aware that many people object to the importing of 'Frenchisms' into our beautiful language. Wasn't there some bloke ( :lol: ) recently who uttered the words "Donnez-moi un break"? Disgraceful! :roll:

Incidentally, the chief meanings of 'break' in French are 1. Estate car, or 2. Break of service (in tennis). So was BoJo asking Macron to give him a car, or challenging him to a tennis match? :wink:
"Geez a brek, pal" is also a Scottishism.

As for 'break' in French being an estate car, remember when estate cars were referred to as 'shooting brakes'? Spelled brake not break, but I wonder if there's a connection.
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Jdsk »

kylecycler wrote: 23 Sep 2021, 11:49amAs for 'break' in French being an estate car, remember when estate cars were referred to as 'shooting brakes'? Spelled brake not break, but I wonder if there's a connection.
Looks like it, although the Wikipedia article needs a bit of work:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_brake

Connected to breaking horses, and break de chasse, and definitely in use before the engines were added.

Jonathan

PS: And three separate terms at one time: estate car, shooting brake, station wagon.

PPS: Anyone for Touring?
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Bmblbzzz »

Jdsk wrote: 23 Sep 2021, 12:02pm
kylecycler wrote: 23 Sep 2021, 11:49amAs for 'break' in French being an estate car, remember when estate cars were referred to as 'shooting brakes'? Spelled brake not break, but I wonder if there's a connection.
Looks like it, although the Wikipedia article needs a bit of work:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_brake

Connected to breaking horses, and break de chasse, and definitely in use before the engines were added.

Jonathan

PS: And three separate terms at one time: estate car, shooting brake, station wagon.

PPS: Anyone for Touring?
GTO. Yes, I do like Donna Summer.
drossall
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by drossall »

661-Pete wrote: 23 Sep 2021, 10:58amIn French, passionné can simply mean 'keen' - as in "il est passionné de cyclisme". I don't see anything wrong with adopting that meaning into English - although I'm well aware that many people object to the importing of 'Frenchisms' into our beautiful language.
Oddly, we might find "Cycling is my passion" more acceptable than "I am passionate about cycling". Doesn't make a lot of sense.

And anyway, why not be passionate about your pastime, when these days, being "passionate" about whatever your job role is supposed to deliver is de rigueur. See what I did there? :lol:
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Jdsk »

colin54 wrote: 23 Sep 2021, 8:47am
Jdsk wrote: 23 Sep 2021, 8:02am Doesn't Chambers describe that usage as colloquial rather than slang?
From my kitchen-Chambers.
Image
Thank you. How interesting. The online Chambers has:
Screenshot 2021-09-24 at 07.36.54.png

I wonder if they have changed their categorisation. Any Chambers experts out there?

Jonathan
colin54
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by colin54 »

Jdsk wrote: 24 Sep 2021, 7:38am
colin54 wrote: 23 Sep 2021, 8:47am
Jdsk wrote: 23 Sep 2021, 8:02am Doesn't Chambers describe that usage as colloquial rather than slang?
From my kitchen-Chambers.


I wonder if they have changed their categorisation. Any Chambers experts out there?

Jonathan
Good Morning Jonathan, thanks for the Chambers screen-shot, that's a puzzle isn't it ?
I did wonder on reflection, whether you were talking about my use of the word 'un in the phrase
'have a good 'un (slang) which I had used up-thread. Which is described in my kitchen-chamber Chambers as; (dial) for dialect(al).
I've really only replied to get that half-baked pun out of my head, worse than an ear worm, it was; let no poor pun go un-punished, or unpublished.
I got a more modern Chambers a while back, very slightly slimmer and with larger print, I gave it to charity shop after a while, it didn't seem as precise somehow as my (actually my late Mother's old) copy from 1985. Perhaps the on-line version is based on that ?
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Mick F
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Mick F »

Not sure I mentioned this on this thread or not.
Posters and signs need to be written correctly.

Cycled down to Plymouth today, and down Route 27 Drake's Trail.
Cattle grids a few times, and as usual, they have a sign for the side-gate to avoid the grid, "Horse drawn vehicles and animals"
Horse drawn vehicles and animals?
When was the last time you saw a horse drawn animal? :lol:

The sign should be, "Animals and horse-drawn vehicles".

Any road up, the previous post of mine tried to explain the luggage trolleys at Plymouth Station, but today I was able to photograph the sign.

It says, "Not to be Plymouth" under the First Great Western logo.
Then, to the right, it says, "Removed from station".

This infers that First Great Western should not be in Plymouth, and that the luggage trolley has been removed from the station.
Pedantic, I know, but the signwriters - of the cattle grid signs and the luggage trollies - need to get it right.
IMG_0812.jpg
Mick F. Cornwall
Jdsk
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Jdsk »

Mick F wrote: 5 Oct 2021, 9:33pmThis infers that First Great Western should not be in Plymouth, and that the luggage trolley has been removed from the station.
Pedantic, I know, but the signwriters - of the cattle grid signs and the luggage trollies - need to get it right.
If we're going to be pedantic in a thread about usage... the word that you're looking for is implies, not infers.

Jonathan
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by thirdcrank »

Since a horse is an animal, reference to horse-drawn vehicles is redundant.
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661-Pete
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by 661-Pete »

Perhaps having just the word ANIMALS on the sign might be construed as a veiled insult. Isn't that what very uncouth persons are called?

Re "horse-drawn animals": in the good old days when there was "hanging, drawing, and quartering", I believe the 'drawing' part consisted of the unfortunate victim being dragged along the road tied behind a horse...
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by mattheus »

661-Pete wrote: 6 Oct 2021, 9:04am Re "horse-drawn animals": in the good old days when there was "hanging, drawing, and quartering", I believe the 'drawing' part consisted of the unfortunate victim being dragged along the road tied behind a horse...
Are you proposing this for those that confuse infers and implies? Bit harsh ...
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Mike Sales »

661-Pete wrote: 6 Oct 2021, 9:04am
Re "horse-drawn animals": in the good old days when there was "hanging, drawing, and quartering", I believe the 'drawing' part consisted of the unfortunate victim being dragged along the road tied behind a horse...
I always understood that "drawing" was evisceration, in this case whilst still half alive, and that your innards would be held up before your eyes.
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Oldjohnw »

The English had to invent some words, it appears, to describe the delightful things done to people who didn’t share their views.
John
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