Sunday, April 26, 2009

Linguistic journal

Dear David,
These are the words that are new for me. Some of them are from conversations. I also ask people to give me some words for this assignment. I forgot three of them. I will ask them later. I hope this will do.
Linguistic journal
1. No one but chicken: at Ellen’s house: nobody there
2. Wild goose chase: asking for direction in an office : she did not want to send me to a wrong place
3. Hand down : at Ellen’s house : the best choice
4. A can of worms: in Delanna’s office : shouldn't have started
5. Sucker: in Delanna’s Office: got stuck with something
6. Recken: story book : think
7. T. M. I: linguistic class: too much information
8. F. Y. I.: email : for your information
9. Beach party? Bitch party: I was telling a friend the theme of the storytelling is “bitch party”. She was surprised. It was beach party. I pronounced short I instead of long i. It made a big difference.
10. Smoke like a chimney: at Ellen’s house : smoke a lot
11. Swim like a fish: at Ellen’s house : swim well
12. Buggy (grocery cart): at Ellen’s house : they were explaining things were called differently at different places
13. Hollow leg (eat a lot): at Ellen’s house: someone eats a lot but is thin
14. Second stomach (Japan): at Ellen’s house : in Japan they say second stomach
15. Big stomach king (Chinese): at Ellen’s house: in Taiwan we say the person is a big stomach king when someone eats a lot but is not always thin.
16. Time joke: at Ellen’s house: the joke is not very funny and it takes time to laugh
17. Can’t you smell the smoke : at Ellen’s house: think hard
18. Sled-toboggan (cap, knit cap): at Ellen’s house: They call sled “toboggan” in the north but people call a knit cap “toboggan” in the south
19. Pushing up daisies: church : dead
20. Buy the farm: church : dead
21. Kick the bucket: church : dead
22. Chewing the fat: church: talking to a friend
23. Put your nose into the grind stone:
24. Shoulder to the wheel
25. Get on the ball : church : get seriously about something
26. Handicapped: I was telling a friend that my daughter had a performance yesterday so I couldn’t do anything in the hall. He said you were handicapped.
27. Don’t get your panty in a wad : church : don’t get stressed
28. Unwed my underwear up : church : get passed the anxiety
29. You are almost on the home track: church: almost finish the semester
30. I don’t have a dog in the fight.: classroom: has no right to say anything about it
I ask my neighbor for some words when they had dinner in my apartment :
31. Marco-polo: to see if anyone is home
32. I.d.k.: my house : I don’t know
33. B4 : Before
34. L8R: Later
35. 2moro : tomorrow
36. LOL : Laughing out loud
37. TTYL: talk to you later
38. BRB: be right back
39. ABC gum: already chewed gum (from my daughter)
40. MSR: major supply rout ( used in the army)
41. POV: personally owned vehicle (used in the army)
42. AO: area operation (used in army)
43. Dogwood winter
44. Indian summer
45. ROFL : neighbor’s house: roll on floor laughing
46. LMAO: neighbor’s house: laugh my ass off
47. Discretion is the better part of valor: church: don’t need to share everything
48. Cooking with gas: cake decoration class: getting better

3 comments:

David said...

A good collection of phrases. Many are long established in English. Quite a few originate with William Shakespeare. For example, "discretion is the better part of valour."
Origin: Shakespeare, in Henry IV, Part One, 1596:

Falstaff: 'The better part of valour is discretion; in the which better part I have saved my life.'

Take a look at word definitions and origins. "Recken" is correctly spelled "reckon" and means to compute:
Origin:
bef. 1000; ME rekenen, OE gerecenian (attested once) 0 to report, pay; c. G rechnen to compute

It's common sense is to account as in
"how do you reckon?" ie. "how do you account for that?"
or "you reckon?" meaning "Do you think so?"

David said...

The word Handicapped has an interesting origin, literally meaning "hand in cap"
Origin:
1640–50; 1870–75 for def. 8; orig. hand i' cap hand in cap, referring to a drawing before a horse race
I had always heard that its use as applied to people with disabilities implied that they were put in the street to beg because of their condition, hence stood with their "caps in hand" hoping for charity.
For this reason, the terms "disability" and "differently abled" have replaced "handicapped" which has fallen out of use because of the implied stigma of a worthless beggar.

Priscilla said...

Wow! I have never known about this. It sounds very interesting. Thanks.
I went to see Hamlet last Sunday to get to know him a little bit. I did not know the story but Delanna explained a little for me. I only heard about "Shakespeare"-the name. Never need to read about him.