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

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

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Mick F. Cornwall
Bmblbzzz
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Bmblbzzz »

...For the People.
Dingdong
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Dingdong »

Fish Cakes... Neither fish, nor cake! :x
Manc33
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Manc33 »

More football gobbledygook...

"He's an absolute joke of a player" (now being said as a compliment) :lol:
We'll always be together, together on electric bikes.
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Bmblbzzz »

Dingdong wrote: 5 Oct 2022, 5:36pm Fish Cakes... Neither fish, nor cake! :x
Yorkshire pudding... not a pudding and not even as big as Rutland!

(Fish cakes are definitely cakes and Yorkshire pudding is definitely a pudding, no matter where it originated)
Dingdong
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Dingdong »

How on earth do they get to call it a pudding!
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Bmblbzzz »

Pudding only came to mean something sweet in, I think, the late 19th century. Prior to that it referred to anything steamed or boiled, or made from batter. And originally to a sausage. From the French boudin.

Similarly cake refers to the shape. Think of a cake of soap.
Dingdong
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Dingdong »

'Caketastic' seemingly a word invented by our local vicar for his regular fund raisers.

It gives me the burn!
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Mick F
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Mick F »

Dingdong wrote: 6 Oct 2022, 3:08pm How on earth do they get to call it a pudding!
Have a read at Wiki.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pudding
Mick F. Cornwall
Jdsk
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Jdsk »

...
Christmas is twelve days ............................. not ninety+ days.

Partridge
Turtle Doves
French Hens
Calling Birds
Gold Rings
Geese
Swans
Milk-Maids
Dancing Ladies
Lords Leaping
Pipers
Drummers
...
What's a calling bird? They're colly birds.

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

Post by Bmblbzzz »

A calling bird is a bird that calls. A canary or budgerigar would be a traditional example. What's a colly bird?
Jdsk
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Jdsk »

Bmblbzzz wrote: 14 Oct 2022, 8:58am A calling bird is a bird that calls. A canary or budgerigar would be a traditional example. What's a colly bird?
A blackbird, or black bird:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twelv ... olly_birds

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

Post by Bmblbzzz »

I see. Well I'll go with Henderson 1879 just to be different!
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by mattheus »

Jdsk wrote: 13 Oct 2022, 5:02pm
...
Christmas is twelve days ............................. not ninety+ days.

Partridge
Turtle Doves
French Hens
Calling Birds
Gold Rings
Geese
Swans
Milk-Maids
Dancing Ladies
Lords Leaping
Pipers
Drummers
...
What's a calling bird? They're colly birds.

Jonathan
Like language, traditional song lyrics move on with time.
Jdsk
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Jdsk »

mattheus wrote: 14 Oct 2022, 10:21am
Jdsk wrote: 13 Oct 2022, 5:02pm
...
Christmas is twelve days ............................. not ninety+ days.

Partridge
Turtle Doves
French Hens
Calling Birds
Gold Rings
Geese
Swans
Milk-Maids
Dancing Ladies
Lords Leaping
Pipers
Drummers
...
What's a calling bird? They're colly birds.
Like language, traditional song lyrics move on with time.
I often welcome change in language, as may be obvious from this thread. And it doesn't bother me what other people choose to sing.

Calling bird is fascinating. It looks as if it's a back formation from colly bird, possibly because people didn't know what a colly bird was. But what bird was in the mind of the first person who sang calling bird as a present? Budgerigars and canaries chirp or sing, but I don't think of them as calling. But a couple of tawny owls...

Jonathan

PS: There had probably never been a budgerigar in Britain when the song originated! : -)
Last edited by Jdsk on 14 Oct 2022, 11:11am, edited 1 time in total.
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