Hello, I'm Moby!

Pleased to meetcha!

Let me explain:

When the guy who sits next to me saw me this morning, he said "You're moby, aren't you?"

This took me aback. Initially I thought he said mopey, but then processed what he'd actually said and, since he's worked with me for four months now and knows my name's not moby, I intelligently said "What?"

"Moby. Moby Dick."

This statement, still illiciting confusion on my behalf, I shook my head.

"Moby Dick. You know, Sick."

Oh.

Yeah. Ok, so this rhyming slang thing is still not really what I'm used to. And since I am indeed 'Moby' I had to agree with him.

My first cold of the year, and it's a very visible one. I'm white and shaking and running a temperature. Oh joy.

But at least I can say I'm also a character from a classic novel so life isn't all bad! :)

Phrase of the Day: Cloud Cuckoo Land

This phrase turned up in a meeting some time ago but as my hands are only just starting to recover their dexterity, I've only just got around to blogging about it.

The meaning of the phrase is to imply that the person or thing referred to exists only in a realm of fantasy or in the imagination or that the person has their head in the clouds.

We were talking about local property tax ratings and land valuations in the meeting, and how they are calculated, and the presenter quoted a judge who had said the whole system existed only in cloud cuckoo land. Hence my interest.

In all fairness to the rating system, it began life in the 1600's and has grown organically ever since, so it's hardly surprising that it makes very little sense these days.

Anyway, the phrase finder has a lovely explanation of the origin of this phrase which I am going to re-post in full here as it's very clear:

Origin

It is nice for once to have a definite and unambiguous origin for an expression. Cloud-cuckoo-land was coined in Aristophanes' whimsical and extravagant play, The Birds

Chorus leader: So what name shall we give our city?
Pisthetairos: Well, do you want to use that mighty name from Lacedaimon - shall we call it Sparta?
Euelpides: By Hercules, would I use that name Sparta for my city? No. I wouldn't even try esparto grass to make my bed, not if I could use cords of linen.
Pisthetairos: All right then, what name shall we provide?
Chorus leader: Some name from around here - to do with clouds, with high places full of air, something really extra grand.
Pisthetairos: Well, then, how do you like this: Cloudcuckooland?

The play was first translated into English by the poet and translator Henry F. Cary, in 1824, which is the date of the entry of 'cloud-cuckoo-land' into the language.

So there you have it.

My Hero: Placky Dacks

It's a tad wet here at the 'mo. Having no wish to repeat the performance of saturation that got me my current cold, I went to Gould's on the weekend (army store) and got myself some plastic rain-proof trousers. I was very happy indeed with this purchase as it poured on me this morning. They worked wonders. In fact my bottoms were dryer than my top was when I got into work.

Unfortunately, I made the fatal error of calling them 'Plastic Pants' in front of my co-workers. In the UK, plastic pants are what babies wear to stop you-know-what from leaking. Here, they're outer-trousers or waterproof trousers (which is sensible I guess if you're into sensible!). I caused hilarity and a repeat of my error to every other staff member that happened to walk past. *sigh*

Well at least I was dry. I may look like a burke, but I'm a DRY burke!

Word of the Day: Matelot

Pronounced Mat-lo, it's French for Sailor, and it's what they call the Navy boys around here. Used to specifically refer to a sailor on a merchantman, but has been hi-jacked to mean any person who walks on water these days.

If you hadn't already guessed, I'm working in the Plymouth Navy Yard, so during lunch time 'rambles' around the base (as is the custom here), I am invariably inducted into the history of the place. I can't for the life of me remember what we call Sailors in Aus - the army are the grunts or diggers and the air force are fly boys, but I never had much to do with naval personnel before. However, I am now forever hearing about what the matelots do around the place, and when I questioned the origin, I got a rather strange look. Why isn't a sailor a sailor? 'Cause he's a matelot of course! Right.

Anyway, I didn't have much luck finding too many definitions for the term that weren't in french, but I did find some rather interesting descriptions here and here. Have a read if you want to raise an eyebrow!

Word of the Day: Manchester.

According to the English, to all intents and purposes Manchester is a city in northwestern England, located 30 miles to the east of Liverpool, in the heart of the most densely populated area of England.

So when I quoted on my inventory of items to be left in a storage facility here, that it would contain various items of Manchester, the guy behind the counter looked at me very strangely.

Try looking for a definition of Manchester on the web that does not include the words Australia or New Zealand, and you'd understand why. Only antipodeans call sheets and towels Manchester. To the rest of the world, the word generally means the home of the Soccer - sorry, I mean football (sheesh!) - team, Manchester United.

In England, what we Aussies consider Manchester, they call soft goods. I've been looking for a reason why we call it Manchester, but I can't find one on the web at least. I guess it's because some Australian factory imported soft goods from Manchester and it's another one of these instances where the name got extrapolated from the product name to come to mean the product but I can't prove it. If anyone can elucidate me, please do!

I'll just have to be more diligent in my use of words in future.

Word of the Day: Verisimilitude

This is one that I have a lot of trouble saying. It's pronounced Ver-i-si-mil-i-tude. Kinda like Very Similar, which amazingly enough, is very close to it's meaning! Puns intended.

Verisimilitude means the semblance of reality or appearance of truth.

Websters: The quality or state of being verisimilar; the appearance of truth; probability; likelihood.

Douglas Harper: 1603, from Fr. verisimilitude (1549), from L. verisimilitudo "likeness to truth," from veri, genitive of verum, neut. of verus "true" (see very) + similis "like, similar" (see similar).

Or as the Encyclopedia Britannica would have it: the semblance of reality in dramatic or nondramatic fiction. The concept implies that either the action represented must be acceptable or convincing according to the audience's own experience or knowledge or, as in the presentation of science fiction or tales of the supernatural, the audience must be enticed into willingly suspending disbelief and accepting improbable actions as true within the framework of the narrative.

Why am I thinking of Verismilitude? Just wanted to expand your minds really. Plus I needed practice at saying it 'cause I often can't. And it's a fiction related term that crops up lots so I might drop it into conversation and would prefer that I be understood. Yes?

Word of the Day: Enervated

Well, I got this one wrong. Not quite what I thought it was. I was close, but only got a funky banana...

I was thinking about using it to describe the state I was in the other night when I had driven in to work and then from work to Bendigo. The idea being that I was exhausted but so wound up I couldn't relax. I thought that's what enervated meant. Exhausted but with nervous energy or some such. Instead, according to Dictionary.com it means:

"without vigor, force, or strength; languid."

So, does anyone know if there is a word that means exhausted and in such a state of exhaustion that you are shaking from it, but at the same time so tense you feel like you're a spring and you can't relax to save yourself?

Words of the Day....

Check out this site: http://www.vocaboly.com/vocabulary-test/

It will let you know just how good or bad your vocabulary really is. I'm not going to brag, but mine's not bad! :)

Word of the Day: Pom

I'd recently been advised that, along the lines of 'When in Rome', if I wanted to get better service in this country, I should whinge like a pom. Since this piece of advice was given to me, on two separate occasions, by two English persons, I was slightly taken aback. I always thought 'whinging pom' was a derogatory term and I've read some hoo-ha about the word 'Pom' being an insult, but apparently it's not any more, or at least, not here. So I was curious; Where does the word 'Pom' come from? And is it an insult or not?

So I looked it up.

The word 'pommy' is actually yet another piece of Antipodean slang. It is (believe it or not) a contraction of the word 'pomegranate'. Why pomegranate I hear you ask? It's rhyming slang.

Pome-granate / Immi-grant.

Pom is a derogatory term for a recently arrived (English) immigrant. But of course!

The Oxford English Dictionary refers to a 14 November 1912 edition of Australian newspaper, The Bulletin which includes the statement; “The other day a Pummy Grant (assisted immigrant) was handed a bridle and told to catch a horse.”

So it is an insult of sorts, but seems to be loosing it's power. It may still be an insult in Aus, but here, it's become part of the popular culture, or so it would seem. Strange but true.

Word of the Day: Sinistral

Recently, the highlight of my lunchtime (being the reading of the blogs of my favourite authors), led me to a most distracting website. It is called FreeRice and it’s a site where you can test your vocabulary (and indeed, expand your vocabulary) whilst donating rice to poor countries, as every correct answer earns a donation of 20 grains of rice to the UN. Now I’m not really sure about the rice side of things… who on earth would count out 20 grains of rice? But the game side is very addictive if you like words. I have so far only managed to get up to level 46, which isn’t that high actually. It’s frustrating and fun, but I came across one today that really intrigued me, so I looked it up.

Sinistral: It means of, pertaining to, or on the left side. It is the opposite of Dextral (which I never actually knew means on the right side), and it is used to mean a person who is left-handed.

As you can see from it’s root though, the word has it's origin in the word Sinister, which is what got me thinking – how do you get ‘on the left side’ from ‘evil’?

So, Word of the Day two is...

Sinister: The first known use of the word is in 1411, meaning "prompted by malice or ill-will," from the Old French. sinistre "contrary, unfavourable, to the left,". In Latin it is sinister "left, on the left side" (opposite of dexter). The Latin word was used in augury in the sense of "unlucky, or unfavourable" (omens, especially bird flights, seen on the left hand were regarded as portending misfortune), and thus sinister acquired a sense of "harmful, unfavourable or adverse." This actually due to Greek influence, reflecting the early Greek practice of facing north when observing omens; in genuine Roman auspices, the left was favourable. Bend (not "bar") sinister in heraldry indicates illegitimacy and preserves the literal sense of "on the left side." This is seen as a bar across the heraldic shield starting from the left.

So there you go. If you were left handed six centauries ago the Greeks would have called you ill omened and if you were born on the wrong side of the sheets, you'd be illigitimate, but either way, you're sinister. Doesn’t that just make your day?

Word for the Day: Nong

In Australian slang, the word Nong is used as a pretty mild and/or endearing insult. A bit of a twit, or idiot. Possibly derived by the shortening of an earlier Australian and British slang word, Ning-Nong.


On the Ning Nang Nong

On the Ning Nang Nong
Where the Cows go Bong!
and the monkeys all say BOO!
There's a Nong Nang Ning
Where the trees go Ping!
And the tea pots jibber jabber joo.
On the Nong Ning Nang
All the mice go Clang
And you just can't catch 'em when they do!
So its Ning Nang Nong
Cows go Bong!
Nong Nang Ning
Trees go ping
Nong Ning Nang
The mice go Clang
What a noisy place to belong
is the Ning Nang Ning Nang Nong!!

Spike Milligan

Word of the Day: Conniption

Often, conniptions. A fit of hysterical excitement or violent emotion such as anger or panic. Also called a conniption fit.

Ie, the thing you experience when you discover you have to find a Chrismas present for a person who you didn't know was invited to a party you are attending that very evening.

I would like to talk to you about Duvets

A Duvet is something I never knew I owned – and yet I did. A Doona is a Duvet.

Apparently it is only called a ‘Doona’ in Australia, derived form the Old Norse dunn meaning ‘down feathers’ and something else that I never knew - that the actual word ‘Doona’ started as a brand name for duvets in Australia. Like so many Australian products, the brand name becomes the product name, so we have Glad Wrap and Scotch tape and Speedo’s and Kleenex and Biro’s… Well, how many examples can you think of?

But let’s not get too sidetracked here.

When I first secured my current place of abode, I had to purchase a lot of manchester, as furniture was included in the flat but linen was not. So I had to buy sheets and towels and pillows… and a duvet. The problem was that duvets here are labelled very differently from what we see at home. Instead of the % of wool v acrylic or down v feathers, all duvets here are rated according to Togs. So What on Earth is a Tog? I hear you ask… well, if you didn’t ask, I certainly did, as I had absolutely no clue and wasn’t about to purchase anything if I couldn’t tell how warm it was going to be.

So off to the trusty www for me…

Tog: Unit of measure of thermal insulation used in the textile trade; a light summer suit provides 1.0 tog. The tog value of an object is equal to ten times the temperature difference (in °C) between its two surfaces when the flow of heat is equal to one watt per square metre; one tog equals 0.645 clo.

Or, in somewhat more user-friendly English:

What are tog ratings?
A 'tog' is a UK industry standard name used for measuring the warmth of a duvet. The higher the tog rating, the warmer the duvet. Togs are measured in units of thermal resistance. For instance if a duvet has a tog rating of 4.5 then it would be more likely be used in the summer months. And at the other end of the scale, a duvet with a tog rating of 13.5 would be used in the colder months of the year.
summer >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> winter
4.5 tog 6 tog 7.5 tog 9 tog 10.5 tog 12 tog 13.5 tog

Something that Australia could benefit from incorporating I think. When I first moved out of home I bought a Doona that was way too warm for me during summer and not warm enough in winter. I learnt that lesson well, and never again bought a 50% down Doona. But you’re still never quite sure if what you’re getting is going to be right for you when you purchase something back home.

Here, they have ingenious duel packs where you can buy a 4.5 and a 10 together, which gives you a summer duvet (the 4.5), a spring and autumn duvet (the 10) and a winter duvet (the 4.5 and 10 combined). This is what I did, and I have recently changed from my summer to my autumn duvet, and it works a treat. I’ve never actually been quite as comfortable in those ‘in-between’ months before. It’s great!

Just thought I’d let you know! :)

Scoggin

I’m learning a lot about my own language living in this country. I keep using Australian colloquialisms which then have to be explained to my work mates as there aren’t any other Aussies there, and I find I need to look up the accepted definition myself as I’ve been using the words for so long I’m no longer sure if I have the meaning correct.

Today’s word was Scroggin. This is a mixture of nuts, dried fruit and occasionally chocolate use by bushwalkers as a snackable energy source on the go. I interrogated the www and someone at Wiki has found a way of describing what it is that uses the constituents to form an acronym.

Sultanas
Chocolate
Raisins
Orange peel (candied)
Ginger (crystallised)
Glucose (barley sugar / lollies)
Improvisation / Imagination
Nuts

As good a way to describe it as any. You learn something new every day.

The year away is proving to be an endless education. The differences in language, customs, products and practices between all the various nationalities represented at my work result in an endless supply of new discussion topics. It’s very interesting and quite a bit of fun.

May I continue to learn to the end of my days!

May I interject for a moment?

I was feeling particularly murderous today contemplating how it was possible that our society allows stupid people to continue living; they are such a waste of space and a real drain on the general level of intelligence. The way that they can be so unbelievably stubborn in maintaining a detrimental stance in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary just because they have decided they don’t like you, or the way they have of making you feel bad for understanding more than they do and how they make you co-conspirators in the race to stupefy the species by ensuring you dumb down everything you do in order that a three year old might understand it…The minute such a person is identified they should be shot to ensure that no further pollution of the gene pool occurs…

Thankfully J saved me from acts unmentionable by using an interjection in an email which had the very fortunate effect of side-tracking my brain.

The word he used was ‘Meh’. Indicative of indifference in this case I believe. This led me to a chase for the meaning of the word, which led to the discovery that it was an interjection; at which point I was confounded, as I always thought interjections where a kind of variation of interruptions, but I was wrong.

An interjection is a word or short phrase used to express emotion. It contributes nothing to sentence structure and exists solely to describe a feeling e.g. Grr Argh! (mild anger) Bwahaha! (fiendish delight), Phwoar! (desire), Geez! (annoyance), Humph! (disgruntlement), Narf (silly nonsense), Bleuch (something distasteful), Feh! (disgust or contempt) or Meh! (who cares?). And the beauty of them is that they can be used in multiple situations to describe multiple feelings – just change the inflection and hay presto!

I have always thought that the English language was something to be treasured. I adore Shakespeare and love reading the classics like Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and Oscar Wilde. I prided myself – somewhat snobbishly I will freely admit – that I spoke good English and had a relatively wide vocabulary in comparison to the general population. Regardless of the fact that my sketchy memory and twisted tongue didn’t always coordinate very well (which resulted in the creation of many new and interesting word combinations - ‘Upendicular’ was a favourite), I always thought that to be able to form concise sentences and use the precise word to describe the exact item under discussion was the height of true language mastery.

Unfortunately for me the attainment of language mastery is unachievable. As it is a left-brain centred and analytical pursuit it does not respond well to emotional interference. Whilst it is eminently possible to adequately describe a towering fury or the feeling of total disgust, you actually have to think to do so, which, when you are IN a towering fury or feeling totally disgusted, is generally impossible. Language mastery fails entirely and spluttering ensues. However, a well placed “For F***s Sake!” or guttural “Gah!” reminiscent of a cat’s hiss, does brilliantly to describe both these states and expresses the feeling behind the words so much better, so much more succinctly and so much more satisfyingly than a descriptive passage ever could. Well, it does for me anyway.

So, these days I have decided I don’t care that much about being superior; I am just going to enjoy my language as it comes to me. Not so cleaver as I though I was hay? So much for my plan to massacre all stupid people.

One last comment: I like interjections. My spell checker does not.

And on that thought, I’ll leave you to decipher my feelings right now by interjection:

Aarrghh! Goddam! Duh?! Sheesh!