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Tony Cooper
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 6:04 am
Post subject: Re: "...they're having a row with the wankers" |
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On Wed, 17 Aug 2005 19:30:44 +0000 (UTC), Areff <me@privacy.net>
wrote:
| Quote: | Default User wrote:
Tony Cooper wrote:
"Row", as in "having a row with his wife" is uncommon in AmE?
Pretty uncommon in my part of the nation. I doubt I've ever heard it in
conversation.
Here's proof that "row" is chiefly British:
Google:
"having a row with" 680
"having a row with" site:.uk 523
"having a row with" site:.au 44
"having a row with" site:.nz 12
"having a row with" (Total for UK/AU/NZ): 579
I ask Coop to explain these results.
First, you explain why M-W doesn't say "Chiefly British". |
Personally, I prefer "a row and a ruction", but that's me.
--
Tony Cooper
Orlando FL |
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Django Cat
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 6:07 am
Post subject: Re: "...they're having a row with the wankers" |
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Areff wrote:
| Quote: | Tony Cooper wrote:
That might mean more if we knew if your part of the nation was next
door to the Unibomber's hide-away or just off the corner of Nostrand
Avenue and Flatbush Avenue.
Just off the what? As Br. Martin Ambuhl can tell you, Flatbush
Avenue and Nostrand Avenue are two of the more important
thoroughfares in Brooklyn (FLCIA), and their intersection has long
been known as "The Junction". The Junction is right near where
Brooklyn College (CUNY)
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CUNY is in Brooklyn?
I have been labouring under a misapprehension... |
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Tony Cooper
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 6:09 am
Post subject: Re: "...they're having a row with the wankers" |
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On 17 Aug 2005 21:10:30 GMT, "Default User" <defaultuserbr@yahoo.com>
wrote:
| Quote: | Tony Cooper wrote:
On 17 Aug 2005 19:46:40 GMT, "Default User" <defaultuserbr@yahoo.com
wrote:
Tony Cooper wrote:
"Row", as in "having a row with his wife" is uncommon in AmE?
Pretty uncommon in my part of the nation. I doubt I've ever heard
it in conversation.
That might mean more if we knew if your part of the nation was next
door to the Unibomber's hide-away or just off the corner of Nostrand
Avenue and Flatbush Avenue.
I'm pretty sure I've mentioned St. Louis in the past. Ah yes, Google
reports Aug. 11 in the "Go with" thread and Jul. 22 in the "North
State". discussion.
As I expect everyone to hang on my every word, I'd also expect you to
commit that to memory.
|
It was a temporary lapse of memory, and quite untypical of me. The
reference was the start of a discussion about St Louis MO or St Louis
IL, wasn't it?
--
Tony Cooper
Orlando FL |
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Sara Lorimer
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 6:09 am
Post subject: Re: "...they're having a row with the wankers" |
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"Django Cat" <nospam@please> wrote:
| Quote: | Areff wrote:
Tony Cooper wrote:
That might mean more if we knew if your part of the nation was next
door to the Unibomber's hide-away or just off the corner of Nostrand
Avenue and Flatbush Avenue.
Just off the what? As Br. Martin Ambuhl can tell you, Flatbush
Avenue and Nostrand Avenue are two of the more important
thoroughfares in Brooklyn (FLCIA), and their intersection has long
been known as "The Junction". The Junction is right near where
Brooklyn College (CUNY)
CUNY is in Brooklyn?
Among other places, yes. |
--
SML |
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Skitt
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 6:13 am
Post subject: Re: "...they're having a row with the wankers" |
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Django Cat wrote:
| Quote: | Areff wrote:
Tony Cooper wrote:
That might mean more if we knew if your part of the nation was next
door to the Unibomber's hide-away or just off the corner of Nostrand
Avenue and Flatbush Avenue.
Just off the what? As Br. Martin Ambuhl can tell you, Flatbush
Avenue and Nostrand Avenue are two of the more important
thoroughfares in Brooklyn (FLCIA), and their intersection has long
been known as "The Junction". The Junction is right near where
Brooklyn College (CUNY)
CUNY is in Brooklyn?
I have been labouring under a misapprehension...
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It's everywhere; in New York, that is. Nineteen places -- count them.
--
Skitt (in Hayward, California)
www.geocities.com/opus731/ |
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Django Cat
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 6:18 am
Post subject: Re: "...they're having a row with the wankers" |
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Areff wrote:
| Quote: | Mike Lyle wrote:
Areff wrote:
Troy Steadman wrote:
In "300 reasons why we love The Simpsons" we have [...]
birds, they're having a row with the wankers.'
Could one of you Americans tell me what - if anything - that last
sentence means?
It's just making fun of British people using characteristic British
language not typically used by Americans. The following terms are
thought of as chiefly British:
[...]
"wanker" (all usages)
[...]
But what struck me most forcibly was that the supposedly prudish US
let "wankers" through the TV net.
Reminiscent, perhaps, of the usage of "shag" in the _Austin Powers_
movies, including in the title of one of them. A sufficiently
exotic term easily gets past the censors.
|
Can of worms there. When 'The Spy who shagged me' was released back
into the UK it was initially billed as 'The Spy who s****ed ne'. When
that got silly we all had to pretend that 'shag' wasn't actually a
mid-level taboo word roughly equivalent to US 'screw', but a funny
little exoticism we'd never met before (cf 'bonk'). I think I've
speculated here before on how the US would have greeted a British
comedy movie about a stereotypical 60s American secret agent with the
title 'The Spy who Screwed me'. Naturally our sad wannabie 51st
staters loved it.
DC |
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Django Cat
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 6:20 am
Post subject: Re: "...they're having a row with the wankers" |
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the Omrud wrote:
| Quote: | Mike Lyle spake thusly:
Areff wrote:
Troy Steadman wrote:
In "300 reasons why we love The Simpsons" we have [...]
birds, they're having a row with the wankers.'
Could one of you Americans tell me what - if anything - that last
sentence means?
It's just making fun of British people using characteristic
British language not typically used by Americans. The following
terms are thought of as chiefly British:
[...]
"wanker" (all usages)
[...]
But what struck me most forcibly was that the supposedly prudish US
let "wankers" through the TV net. I can't imagine Brit broadcasters
airing that episode unexpurgated -- and, indeed, as it's a
prime-time children's favourite, I'd have found it objectionable.
US TV programmes have a history of Wankers which have remained
uncensored when transferred to UK children's TV. IIRC, one of the
characters in Mork & Mindy was Mr Wanker, and the music for Buffy was
composed by one Thomas Wanker, whose name is in the end credits. Son
sat transfixed through the credits so that he could laugh at the
name. Every week.
It's just not a rude word in the US. Same with Bollocks - there was
a car in California with a vanity plate of "BOLOCKS" or something
similar (IIUC, vanity plates can only have up to 7 letters).
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Mind you, I passed a car on the M60 a while back with a 'K9P' plate...
DC |
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Tony Cooper
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 6:21 am
Post subject: Re: "...they're having a row with the wankers" |
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On Wed, 17 Aug 2005 19:02:18 -0500, "Django Cat" <nospam@please>
wrote:
| Quote: | Americans don't say 'row' for an argument?
Weird.
Of course we do. It's one of the terms that most Americans would use. |
C'mon, now, it was Areff that said it was uncommon.
--
Tony Cooper
Orlando FL |
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Robert Lieblich
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 6:25 am
Post subject: Re: "...they're having a row with the wankers" |
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Skitt wrote:
| Quote: |
Django Cat wrote:
Areff wrote:
Tony Cooper wrote:
That might mean more if we knew if your part of the nation was next
door to the Unibomber's hide-away or just off the corner of Nostrand
Avenue and Flatbush Avenue.
Just off the what? As Br. Martin Ambuhl can tell you, Flatbush
Avenue and Nostrand Avenue are two of the more important
thoroughfares in Brooklyn (FLCIA), and their intersection has long
been known as "The Junction". The Junction is right near where
Brooklyn College (CUNY)
CUNY is in Brooklyn?
I have been labouring under a misapprehension...
It's everywhere; in New York, that is. Nineteen places -- count them.
|
Kinda like the University of California, which is all over the state.
I wonder if the original campus, at Berkeley (of which I am a
graduate), can still get away with calling itself simply "University
of California" or now has to add "at Berkeley."[1]
[1] Most Californians refer to it as simply "Berkeley." Most sports
fans call it "Cal." How President Coolidge got in there, I'll never
know.
--
Bob Lieblich
Who hasn't been back in more than ten years |
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Don Aitken
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 6:31 am
Post subject: Re: "...they're having a row with the wankers" |
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On Wed, 17 Aug 2005 17:18:46 +0100, "Mike Lyle"
<mike_lyle_uk@REMOVETHISyahoo.co.uk> wrote:
| Quote: | the Omrud wrote:
Tony Cooper spake thusly:
On Wed, 17 Aug 2005 15:02:23 GMT, the Omrud
usenet.omrud@gmail.com
wrote:
Tony Cooper spake thusly:
Drifting a bit....I usually associate the use of "me" as used
above
with Irish-speak. Last night I was watching "Shirley Valentine"
on
HBO and noticed that the Liverpuddlian Shirley used "me" thusly.
It's used throughout the UK in informal speech. I use it meself.
I
don't think it's even marked for class.
I've seen usages like "I'll get me coat" here (in aue), but it
always
seems to be a deliberate affectation. It doesn't seem
naturalspeak
to anyone in this group.
That's because it's never (for most values of never) written down,
except in jest. We all say it, but none of us writes it.
It can actually be grandee-speak, too; though I doubt if there are
many genuine survivors. I think I put it in the mouth of an
"eh-what?" squirearchical character for an AUE exchange with
Mickwick: it certainly would have fitted.
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Wayland Young, in his book on the Profumo affair, had a interesting
take on this, applied to the way his upper-class clients regarded
Stephen Ward:
'There is a class of public-school Tory who can best be understood by
examining the prefix "M'". "M'tutor" is what Etonians call the
intellectual lackeys to whom they are put out for education. The
little labial derives from the eighteenth-century pronunciation "me";
"me father", "me daughter", "me butcher". Etonians use it
unselfconsciously for "m'tutor" and will recognise it as something
relevant to themselves if you say "m'tailor", "m'toothmaker" or
"m'tractor", though they might not recognise "m'procurer". But, and
here is the point, it would be impossible to say "m'battalion",
"m'company sergeant major", "m'horse", or even "m'dog"; these are
things which are dignified by exposure to common risk with the master
on the field of battle or the hunting field. If there is no risk of
death or wounding together, the person used is expendable. If there
is, the structure of romantic conservative loyalty, then which nothing
in England is stronger, comes into play. Brigadier John Profumo is
still alive.'
--
Don Aitken
Mail to the From: address is not read.
To email me, substitute "clara.co.uk" for "freeuk.com" |
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Django Cat
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 6:32 am
Post subject: Re: "...they're having a row with the wankers" |
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Sara Lorimer wrote:
| Quote: | "Django Cat" <nospam@please> wrote:
Areff wrote:
Tony Cooper wrote:
That might mean more if we knew if your part of the nation was
next door to the Unibomber's hide-away or just off the corner
of Nostrand Avenue and Flatbush Avenue.
Just off the what? As Br. Martin Ambuhl can tell you, Flatbush
Avenue and Nostrand Avenue are two of the more important
thoroughfares in Brooklyn (FLCIA), and their intersection has long
been known as "The Junction". The Junction is right near where
Brooklyn College (CUNY)
CUNY is in Brooklyn?
Among other places, yes.
|
Ah. Multi-campus then? (I subscribe to one of their email postings.)
DC |
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Sara Lorimer
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 6:36 am
Post subject: Re: "...they're having a row with the wankers" |
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"Django Cat" <nospam@please> wrote:
| Quote: | Sara Lorimer wrote:
"Django Cat" <nospam@please> wrote:
CUNY is in Brooklyn?
Among other places, yes.
Ah. Multi-campus then? (I subscribe to one of their email postings.)
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Yup -- as Skitt pointed out, there are nineteen of them. Here's a list:
<http://portal.cuny.edu/portal/site/cuny/?epi_menuItemID=dac6ef79a2dd419
b962ac564d81010a0&epi_menuID=96c7eda6a122322b3bef4d5178304e08&epi_baseMe
nuID=a00e05b73704d3407d840d5541a08a0c>
or
<http://tinyurl.com/cju9e>
--
SML |
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Skitt
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 7:08 am
Post subject: Re: "...they're having a row with the wankers" |
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Areff wrote:
| Quote: | Tony Cooper wrote:
Areff wrote:
"having a row with" 680
"having a row with" site:.uk 523
"having a row with" site:.au 44
"having a row with" site:.nz 12
"having a row with" (Total for UK/AU/NZ): 579
I ask Coop to explain these results.
First, you explain why M-W doesn't say "Chiefly British".
AFAIC, M-W has lost all credibility by having unblockable popups.
|
I noticed that! Pop-unders.
--
Skitt (in Hayward, California)
www.geocities.com/opus731/ |
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Richard Bollard
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 7:08 am
Post subject: Re: "...they're having a row with the wankers" |
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On Wed, 17 Aug 2005 13:12:36 GMT, Tony Cooper
<tony_cooper213@earthlink.net> wrote:
| Quote: | Was "Shirley Valentine" the only major role for Pauline Collins? I
don't think I've ever seen her in anything else. At least to notice.
Now that I've Googled her, I do think I remember her in "Upstairs,
Downstairs", but the rest of her credits are unfamiliar to me.
|
That suggests you didn't get to see the series Wodehouse Playhouse.
Pity.
--
Richard Bollard
Canberra Australia
To email, I'm at AMT not spAMT. |
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Ben Zimmer
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 7:09 am
Post subject: Re: "...they're having a row with the wankers" |
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Django Cat wrote:
| Quote: |
Areff wrote:
Mike Lyle wrote:
But what struck me most forcibly was that the supposedly prudish
US let "wankers" through the TV net.
Reminiscent, perhaps, of the usage of "shag" in the _Austin Powers_
movies, including in the title of one of them. A sufficiently
exotic term easily gets past the censors.
Can of worms there. When 'The Spy who shagged me' was released back
into the UK it was initially billed as 'The Spy who s****ed ne'. When
that got silly we all had to pretend that 'shag' wasn't actually a
mid-level taboo word roughly equivalent to US 'screw', but a funny
little exoticism we'd never met before (cf 'bonk').
|
In Singapore, the title was initially changed to "The Spy Who Shioked
Me", rather incomprehensibly using the Singaporean slang term "shiok"
(roughly equivalent to "cool"). The censors eventually relented and let
the original title stand. But it's doubtful that many Singaporeans,
despite the country's colonial heritage, would have appreciated the
taboo nature of BrE "shag" if there hadn't been such a fuss made over
the title in the first place. |
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