Cycling UK Forum

Oldjohnw wrote: ↑23 Sep 2021, 7:09am According to the OED stunning means extremely beautiful or attractive.

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.

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 ( ) recently who uttered the words "Donnez-moi un break"? Disgraceful!

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?

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.

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?

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.

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.

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 ?

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.

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...

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...