Cycling UK Forum

Marcus Aurelius wrote: ↑15 Sep 2021, 11:13pm

Jdsk wrote: ↑15 Sep 2021, 2:01pmPS: Any theories on the origin of to go spare?

The origin of to go spare, as in get angry, derives from the Cockney rhyming slang ‘spare tyre’ meaning to show your ire, by extension to get irate.

There seem to be several suggestions: the most common is that comes from being unemployed, but there seem to be some gaps in the chain, then there's rhyming from "Mad as a March Hare", and from "spare tyre" as you say.

https://english.stackexchange.com/quest ... -get-angry
https://english.stackexchange.com/quest ... e-me-spare
http://www.word-detective.com/2009/04/d ... -go-spare/

Jonathan

Verbifying nouns, as suggested elsewhere on these pages and by 10 Downing Street.

Vorpal wrote: ↑16 Sep 2021, 12:11pm

Jdsk wrote: ↑16 Sep 2021, 12:05pm But I think that has the same PIE root... skyrte... skurtaz... *(s)ker.

Or in English (!) skirt... shirt... short... cut.

Jonathan

Interesting. I thought they were unrelated, but they aren't...

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstr ... an/(s)ker-

Similarly the wr- beginning is connected at some old level with ideas of twisting: wrist, wrong (twisted facts), write, wrench, and as we had a page ago, wreak.

But nor Wrexham?

Only Flotsham and Jetsham...

thirdcrank wrote: ↑16 Sep 2021, 4:23pmBut nor Wrexham?

Don't leave your cycling shoes out in the rain, it wrexham.

'Builder's Tea', it's just tea surely ?
Would you ask builders if they wanted builder's tea ?
This smacks of journalistic classist tosh (or should that be splosh) to my ears .
The phrase even has it's own er... weak Wikipedia entry; I also see (from one of the sources listed at the foot of it), the apostrophe being placed at the end of the word builders, i.e. builders' tea, surely if it's referring to serving multiple builders it should be builder's', meaning - 'builders (plural) their tea'.
'One apostrophe or two with that BT mate ?'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Builder%27s_tea

Just off to make a 'litter-picker's latte' (aka, milky coffee) myself, instant coffee made with milk in the microwave, I used to make this to cheer myself upon rising at 4a.m. to clean the mean streets of the First Garden City.

colin54 wrote: ↑20 Sep 2021, 7:52amThe phrase even has it's own er... weak Wikipedia entry; I also see (from one of the sources listed at the foot of it), the apostrophe being placed at the end of the word builders, i.e. builders' tea, surely if it's referring to serving multiple builders it should be builder's', meaning - 'builders (plural) their tea'.

If it's referring to multiple builders then the plural possessive form is builders'.

Shirley

PS: Is Skitt's law in play?

Jdsk wrote: ↑20 Sep 2021, 8:13am

colin54 wrote: ↑20 Sep 2021, 7:52amThe phrase even has it's own er... weak Wikipedia entry; I also see (from one of the sources listed at the foot of it), the apostrophe being placed at the end of the word builders, i.e. builders' tea, surely if it's referring to serving multiple builders it should be builder's', meaning - 'builders (plural) their tea'.

If it's referring to multiple builders then the plural possessive form is builders'.

Shirley

PS: Is Skitt's law in play?

I knew I shouldn't have muddied this beveragistic post with punctuation above my tea-grade.

Give it a couple more cups of the latte?

: - )

Jonathan

Must try harder, must try harder, mu..... etc, the story of my school - school's (?) reports.

"In her 2005 book, Talk to the Hand, Truss acknowledges some of the criticism, obliquely admitting that much of it is warranted."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eats,_Sho ... #Reception

: - )

Jonathan

colin54 wrote: ↑20 Sep 2021, 7:52am 'Builder's Tea', it's just tea surely ?
Would you ask builders if they wanted builder's tea ?
This smacks of journalistic classist tosh (or should that be splosh) to my ears .

When I worked for a subcontractor on large sites, we knocked off at 10.am for breakfast.
This consisted of a large fry up and tea.
The tea was made by boiling up plenty of tea leaves in a big kettle and adding copious evaporated milk and sugar.
Now that is "builder's tea".

Mike Sales wrote: ↑20 Sep 2021, 9:15am
When I worked for a subcontractor on large sites, we knocked off at 10.am for breakfast.
This consisted of a large fry up and tea.
The tea was made by boiling up plenty of tea leaves in a big kettle and adding copious evaporated milk and sugar.
Now that is "builder's tea".

Canteen tea ?

colin54 wrote: ↑20 Sep 2021, 9:48am

Mike Sales wrote: ↑20 Sep 2021, 9:15am
When I worked for a subcontractor on large sites, we knocked off at 10.am for breakfast.
This consisted of a large fry up and tea.
The tea was made by boiling up plenty of tea leaves in a big kettle and adding copious evaporated milk and sugar.
Now that is "builder's tea".

Canteen tea ?

Not a canteen; a building site, we had our own caravan..
At nine o'clock one of us would stop work and go off site for the ingredients, then set to cooking.