Notes of a Linguistic Character
"happy-clappy": lively/charismatic/"low" church
"bellsy-schmellsy": liturgical/sacramental/"high" church
not sure if those are official english terms or coined on the spot (the spot being in this case the corpus christian union before-church breakfast this morning), but apt enough, and to my ear rather characteristically english.
some more commonplace vocabulary:
rubbish 1. n. trash, garbage. "the rubbish men went on strike." "there's a rubbish bin under the counter." 2. adj. of poor quality or bad taste. "that's rubbish music."
salad, n. vegetables of any kind in any context. "salad on your sandwich?"
first, n. 1. top marks at university. "do you think you'll get a first?" 2. a person who achieves top marks. "she was a first in maths at cambridge."
bloke, n. person, esp. male; guy. "some blokes have been working on the road all day."
footballer, n. one who plays soccer. (also cricketer, though not rugbyer)
swish, adj. up-to-date, spiffy, high-tech: "the screens in the Bod aren't so swish."
lots of rather subtle differences, too--you'll have noticed above that university is a mass noun (like "college" for americans, but i've only heard "college" as a count noun here). lots of vocabulary has no great change in meaning, but a change in commonness: "clever" supplants "smart", "brilliant" for "cool", etc.
further bulletins will be posted as noted.
"bellsy-schmellsy": liturgical/sacramental/"high" church
not sure if those are official english terms or coined on the spot (the spot being in this case the corpus christian union before-church breakfast this morning), but apt enough, and to my ear rather characteristically english.
some more commonplace vocabulary:
rubbish 1. n. trash, garbage. "the rubbish men went on strike." "there's a rubbish bin under the counter." 2. adj. of poor quality or bad taste. "that's rubbish music."
salad, n. vegetables of any kind in any context. "salad on your sandwich?"
first, n. 1. top marks at university. "do you think you'll get a first?" 2. a person who achieves top marks. "she was a first in maths at cambridge."
bloke, n. person, esp. male; guy. "some blokes have been working on the road all day."
footballer, n. one who plays soccer. (also cricketer, though not rugbyer)
swish, adj. up-to-date, spiffy, high-tech: "the screens in the Bod aren't so swish."
lots of rather subtle differences, too--you'll have noticed above that university is a mass noun (like "college" for americans, but i've only heard "college" as a count noun here). lots of vocabulary has no great change in meaning, but a change in commonness: "clever" supplants "smart", "brilliant" for "cool", etc.
further bulletins will be posted as noted.
Posted by Jeff on Sunday, October 10, 2004
1 Comments:
Hey Jeff,
I had no idea you were in Oxford this quarter, but I'm glad you're enjoying it so far. It's a great place to be -- I actually miss it a lot some days. I take it you're in Corpus Christi? That's where I was... I don't know if you've met very many Corpus CU people, but when I was there I met a girl named Ruth who I think would still be there now. If you meet her, tell her I said hi!
I look forward to reading about your future adventures...
(Oh, and I found your blog by linking from Tina's page, if you're wondering!)
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