I thought dog barks and bee stings were bad things so it says when the dog barks to think of your favorite things, like raindrops on roses. I don't see the appeal of whiskers on kittens, btu could always go for crisp apple strudel.
Here's a good one, and I'm bringing Urban Dictionary's take on it just because they are more wrong than right but hilarious in general: In for a penny, in for a pound
At least I know what "pennies" and "pounds" are. When books go off into talk of shillings, pence, crowns, quids, and guineas I have absolutely no idea what they're talking about. And how heavy is a stone, how far a furlough, how deep a fathom?
a stone is fourteen pounds.
I believe that the shilling was 1/12 of a pound in the old British monetary system. And I think a quid is slang for a pound (sort of like "buck" in place of dollar). And the pence is now 1/100th of a pound, but back in the old days I believe it was 1/96th of a pound (12 shillings to the pound, 8 pence to the shilling).
There were 20 shillings to the pound, and quid is indeed slang for a pound. I suspect, though, it's an Australian expression, because I've never heard it used in a British context. The British pound was known as a nicker.
And while there are now 100 new pennies to the current pound, in the old days it was 12 pennies to the shilling, which meant you had 240 pennies to the pound.
Did the poms also have the ten-shilling note, or was that only in Australian currency? We certainly had the ten-bob note, if you weren't speakin' refined-like.
A crown was five shillings, or five bob.
A guinea was worth one pound and one shilling, or 21 shillings. A lot of financial dealings were conducted in Guineas. Why? I don't know.
Yes, a stone is 14 pounds. There are 16 ounces to the pound. Note that there are two types of ounces - there's the ounce avoirdupois, which is the measurement in common use. There's also the Troy ounce, which I believe was used when measuring the weight of gold and jewels.
A furlong (not a furlough - that's something else entirely) is an eighth of a mile, or 220 yards. Horse race distances are measured in furlongs.
A fathom is six feet (deep).
While I'm at it, a league is three nautical miles. Note that nautical miles and statute miles are different lengths.
Hey now! Stop beating that poor animal! Bees don't have knees and a cats meow usually means they just want something, so I don't get it. I'd rather hear a dog bark, though I am tethered to these two meow mixes that have simpler needs than any dog I know. Yes, you would think a bee sting was a bad thing too, but I just saw some woman save a hive of 'friendly bees' in a barnyard and it was kind of freaky. Whiskers on kittens? Not as appealing as rain on any type of flower if you ask me. Raindrops means I don't have to go out and water. I'll see your apple strudel and raise you a Linzer Tart.
Here's a good one, and I'm bringing Urban Dictionary's take on it just because they are more wrong than right but hilarious in general: In for a penny, in for a pound
At least I know what "pennies" and "pounds" are. When books go off into talk of shillings, pence, crowns, quids, and guineas I have absolutely no idea what they're talking about. And how heavy is a stone, how far a furlough, how deep a fathom?
a stone is fourteen pounds.
I believe that the shilling was 1/12 of a pound in the old British monetary system. And I think a quid is slang for a pound (sort of like "buck" in place of dollar). And the pence is now 1/100th of a pound, but back in the old days I believe it was 1/96th of a pound (12 shillings to the pound, 8 pence to the shilling).
There were 20 shillings to the pound, and quid is indeed slang for a pound. I suspect, though, it's an Australian expression, because I've never heard it used in a British context. The British pound was known as a nicker.
And while there are now 100 new pennies to the current pound, in the old days it was 12 pennies to the shilling, which meant you had 240 pennies to the pound.
Did the poms also have the ten-shilling note, or was that only in Australian currency? We certainly had the ten-bob note, if you weren't speakin' refined-like.
A crown was five shillings, or five bob.
A guinea was worth one pound and one shilling, or 21 shillings. A lot of financial dealings were conducted in Guineas. Why? I don't know.
So were these actual coins? If so that makes more sense -- we have pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and half dollars. What's confusing to me is that they also seem to have been used as units of currency. You'd never say something cost three dimes here, you'd just say 30 cents, but it seems with the old British money those would be both coins AND currency units.
Marksierra dearest, in currency you forgot halfpennies (pr hay-pennies), worth half-a-penny each but bigger in actual size; and the shiny silver threepence (pr thruh-pence), worth three pence (pennies) or half-a-sixpence. In distance, you forgot my favourites: chains and rods. A chain is 66’ according to Google (doesn’t seem right to me), a rod is 16.5’ (I thought it was 14’, but I was quite young when we went metric so I might not be remembering correctly).
The British Imperial system of measuring distance is based on the length of one of the old king’s feet, which is where the term ‘foot’ comes from. I can’t remember which king though - Alfred the Great? Canute? I should go back to sleep and dream on it...
Oh, TheJmon, you’ve got Mum’s saying already quoted. (You could) blow me down with a feather.
There were 20 shillings to the pound, and quid is indeed slang for a pound. I suspect, though, it's an Australian expression, because I've never heard it used in a British context. The British pound was known as a nicker.
And while there are now 100 new pennies to the current pound, in the old days it was 12 pennies to the shilling, which meant you had 240 pennies to the pound.
Did the poms also have the ten-shilling note, or was that only in Australian currency? We certainly had the ten-bob note, if you weren't speakin' refined-like.
A crown was five shillings, or five bob.
A guinea was worth one pound and one shilling, or 21 shillings. A lot of financial dealings were conducted in Guineas. Why? I don't know.
Yes, a stone is 14 pounds. There are 16 ounces to the pound. Note that there are two types of ounces - there's the ounce avoirdupois, which is the measurement in common use. There's also the Troy ounce, which I believe was used when measuring the weight of gold and jewels.
A furlong (not a furlough - that's something else entirely) is an eighth of a mile, or 220 yards. Horse race distances are measured in furlongs.
A fathom is six feet (deep).
While I'm at it, a league is three nautical miles. Note that nautical miles and statute miles are different lengths.
PVW, actual coins made of bronze for the lesser values (which were bigger coins) and silver for threepence, sixpence, shilling, florins. Pounds were paper, and HUGE. Christmas puddings had coins boiled/baked in them - marksierra, was it threepence or sixpence?? It was good luck to get the piece with the coin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_pound
TheJmon, cats’ whiskers tickle your face when you hug your kitten or cat - it’s a fun thing, and often the kitty likes to nuzzle their human to show affection so they might rub their head around your legs and tickle your calves or just tickle your neck and face. While I don’t think this was the intent of the song, beekeepers often are swarmed by their bees as they extract honey from their hives, so bee stings can be seen as a routine minor inconvenience if you’re wearing appropriate PPE. I believe the bees’ knees were meant to be ‘cute’ and therefore may be a reference to a children’s book illustration or an early cinematic cartoon? what I’m not sure I get is why people still use the expression ‘...the greatest thing since sliced bread’, especially since so many people have reverted to baking their own bread. OK - I’m going back to sleep!!
Wait, you mean you woke up just to contribute to this thread, Joanne? I'm tickled pink....nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.
I'm all for the cat stuff, but bee stings are not as bad as wasps, but you can have them all either way. Bee's knees just is silly, wherever it came from. Sort of like dog's lips, though there is no saying or proof that dogs smile, though some look so human you would think they were smirking at times. Dog's actually have way more expressive faces than cats, IMO. Cat's always seem like they are smirking at you and being aloof, until they manipulate you with their cuteness and get you to give them what they want. Scratch on the head for my little motorboat? Sure thing.
Sliced bread? Not such a great thing anymore, and that particular saying needs to be replaced. It's almost as offensive as saying 'Not the sharpest tool in the shed'. That particular one opens up a whole other.......wait for it.......can of worms! Yikes! How many idioms can I cram into one paragraph?
So were these actual coins? If so that makes more sense -- we have pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and half dollars. What's confusing to me is that they also seem to have been used as units of currency. You'd never say something cost three dimes here, you'd just say 30 cents, but it seems with the old British money those would be both coins AND currency units.
People only really spoke of LSD: Pounds, Shillings and Pennies (librae, solidi, and denarii). Most items under a pound would be listed in shillings and pence, like this:
10/6, or 10 shillings and sixpence. Something that cost 5 shillings would be 5/-.
Farthings (a quarter of a penny) were phased out around 1960, but half pennies (ha'pennies) were still in circulation until the 80s. I bought many of my chocolate bars as a kid with half pennies.
cockney rhyming slang is mostly unintelligible to Americans (like "apples & pears" for stairs). Some of it is even weirder to American ears because the rhyming part was discarded long ago (like "butcher's" for look, which apparently was "butcher's hook" originally). And what's the origin of "Bob's your uncle"? Which as I understand it means a positive outcome.
I don't think there's a real etymological origin to "Bob's your uncle." On top of rhyming slang, and just general regional colloquialisms, you also have words borrowed from Polari which are in common parlance in the UK, but few people know where they came from. And, of course the legendary fluidity of "bollocks", which by themselves are testicles, or describing something bad, "You're talking bollocks, mate". Unless someone describes something as "the dog's bollocks" in which case it's the best thing in world.
So were these actual coins? If so that makes more sense -- we have pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and half dollars. What's confusing to me is that they also seem to have been used as units of currency. You'd never say something cost three dimes here, you'd just say 30 cents, but it seems with the old British money those would be both coins AND currency units.
People only really spoke of LSD: Pounds, Shillings and Pennies (librae, solidi, and denarii). Most items under a pound would be listed in shillings and pence, like this:
10/6, or 10 shillings and sixpence. Something that cost 5 shillings would be 5/-.
Farthings (a quarter of a penny) were phased out around 1960, but half pennies (ha'pennies) were still in circulation until the 80s. I bought many of my chocolate bars as a kid with half pennies.
Ah -- kind of a significant digits question then, going into thousandths (X.XXX) where we only go into hundredths (X.XX). Though I guess that's more of an analogy than precise description given it not being base ten (and admittedly is a weird complaint for an American to make given our inches, feet, miles, ounces, and pounds).
My relatives in Ireland would use bollocks often and also ask,"How's the farm?" I knew what it meant, but you would think they would adjust seeing as I lived in Queens.
I am glad football, that is American football, is still measured in yards. I used to run track and distances were in yards. I still have to do mental calculations converting meters to yards when I watch a race to see what the race time would have been in my day.
"Mind your p's and q's" i had heard was from typesetting, where the lower case p's and q's would be easily mixed up, esp. since the typesetter was reading them backwards. Not verified.
"Bollocks," was that the word my dad was actually saying, always in the phrase i heard as "all bollixed up," for something messed up, tangled, confused?
Bob’s your uncle: I swear I was thinking of this as I fell asleep - the iPad was off and under the bed!!
My sister was on a Fairstar cruise to the UK decades ago, and became friendly with a young woman who was former Australian PM Sir Robert Menzies’ niece. He had lots of nicknames including Ming (the Merciless) and PigIron Bob, and for us after that cruise, Uncle Bob.
- and YES! I really woke up to go the loo around 4am, checked the temp (we had the fan on and it was noisy) and decided to check MOL too
cockney rhyming slang is mostly unintelligible to Americans (like "apples & pears" for stairs). Some of it is even weirder to American ears because the rhyming part was discarded long ago (like "butcher's" for look, which apparently was "butcher's hook" originally). And what's the origin of "Bob's your uncle"? Which as I understand it means a positive outcome.
The QWERTY keyboard history is really interesting, and goes back to at least 1867 and Christopher Sholes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTY When we were learning typing at school (late ‘60s), it seemed that the girls with piano experience had greater ease picking up the spread and speeds required to become proficient. When you’re really typing fast there’s less strain on your weaker fingers as you reach for those letters, consequently less chance of those letter-levers jamming. (I loved my old yellow manual Olivetti typewriter, it was so light and cheerful)
"Mind your p's and q's" i had heard was from typesetting, where the lower case p's and q's would be easily mixed up, esp. since the typesetter was reading them backwards. Not verified.
"Bollocks," was that the word my dad was actually saying, always in the phrase i heard as "all bollixed up," for something messed up, tangled, confused?
The story I had heard with p's and q's was if a fight would break out in a pub they would tell people to mind their p's(pints) and q's (quarts)
Marksierra dearest, in currency you forgot halfpennies (pr hay-pennies), worth half-a-penny each but bigger in actual size; and the shiny silver threepence (pr thruh-pence), worth three pence (pennies) or half-a-sixpence. In distance, you forgot my favourites: chains and rods. A chain is 66’ according to Google (doesn’t seem right to me), a rod is 16.5’ (I thought it was 14’, but I was quite young when we went metric so I might not be remembering correctly).
The British Imperial system of measuring distance is based on the length of one of the old king’s feet, which is where the term ‘foot’ comes from. I can’t remember which king though - Alfred the Great? Canute? I should go back to sleep and dream on it...
Oh, TheJmon, you’ve got Mum’s saying already quoted. (You could) blow me down with a feather.
Thanks Joanne, I didn't want to confuse the issue further. I'm also wondering whether the Australian coinage, which we knew as youngsters, was the direct equivalent of the British coinage of the time?
A chain is indeed 66 feet = 22 yards, which is the length between the stumps of a cricket pitch.
There are four rods in a chain, There are ten chains in a furlong, and 80 chains in a statute mile. I grew up knowing (and still do!) that there are 5280 feet in a mile, or 1760 yards in a mile. Twelve inches to the foot and three feet to the yard.
PVW, actual coins made of bronze for the lesser values (which were bigger coins) and silver for threepence, sixpence, shilling, florins. Pounds were paper, and HUGE. Christmas puddings had coins boiled/baked in them - marksierra, was it threepence or sixpence?? It was good luck to get the piece with the coin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_pound
I don't recall seeing many Christmas puddings as I was growing up, Joanne, but I think the original coins would have been threepence, when the coins were worth something and, then, as inflation and costs of the living went up, they were replaced by sixpences in the pud. Both coins were made of a silver alloy and were shiny.
The practice of adding coins to the pud seems to have died out when Australia moved to decimal currency because the one and two-cent coins - which would have gone into the pud - were bronze-coloured, and weren't as obvious when you came upon them. They could have become a choking hazard and I think I remember public health messages about people needing to be very wary about baking them into their Christmas puddings.
I don't recall seeing many Christmas puddings as I was growing up, Joanne, but I think the original coins would have been threepence, when the coins were worth something and, then, as inflation and costs of the living went up, they were replaced by sixpences in the pud. Both coins were made of a silver alloy and were shiny.
The practice of adding coins to the pud seems to have died out when Australia moved to decimal currency because the one and two-cent coins - which would have gone into the pud - were bronze-coloured, and weren't as obvious when you came upon them. They could have become a choking hazard and I think I remember public health messages about people needing to be very wary about baking them into their Christmas puddings.
Having a hard time working "the proof's in the pudding" as a reply to this post -- would be easier if we were talking about rum cakes...
I don't recall seeing many Christmas puddings as I was growing up, Joanne, but I think the original coins would have been threepence, when the coins were worth something and, then, as inflation and costs of the living went up, they were replaced by sixpences in the pud. Both coins were made of a silver alloy and were shiny.
The practice of adding coins to the pud seems to have died out when Australia moved to decimal currency because the one and two-cent coins - which would have gone into the pud - were bronze-coloured, and weren't as obvious when you came upon them. They could have become a choking hazard and I think I remember public health messages about people needing to be very wary about baking them into their Christmas puddings.
Having a hard time working "the proof's in the pudding" as a reply to this post -- would be easier if we were talking about rum cakes...
I should go back to sleep and dream on it...
English major here...
-s.