hopehope
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Joined: May 2008
Posts: 3,815
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Post by hopehope on Jul 15, 2009 22:46:41 GMT -5
A bear, however hard he tries, Grows tubby without exercise. Our Teddy Bear is short and fat, Which is not to be wondered at; He gets what exercise he can By falling off the ottoman, But generally seems to lack The energy to clamber back
[followed by eleven more verses]
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Post by limegreen on Jul 16, 2009 22:02:29 GMT -5
so cute Hopey! The couch minus it's haul of two remotes -VCR and DVD, several needles, a huge number of knitting yarn ball bands and a goodly handful of my meds (so that is where they went!) is now out on the street. DD and I heaved it out of the house and down the stair and were right at the front door when the young man form upstairs offered his help, and dragged it to the kerb. We knocked some paint off one of our doors and scraped the stone floors a bit, but that will probalby be rubbed out by footfall and washing. As instructed by the City, I ran parcel tape around the cushions and hope that it meets their requirements and they pick it up in the morning. I also took a magic marker to it and wrote that it was to be uplifted on Friday to placate the neighbours who generally take a dim view of dead furniture on the pavement. And, as expected, several neighbours did come and have a look at it, and scan the windows to decide whose couch this old wreck might be. Yes, it is our couch, holes and sticking out frame and all. It is sitting out there looking rather sad and surprisingly small. Hope LL gets us chairs tomorrow as we didn't think much of watching TV sitting on dining chairs, it's just not right. In other news I ate dinner at the table for the first time in at least five years - darn that was weird! And DD, without being asked, hoovered the space vacated by the couch and then did the rest of the living room as well!!!!!!
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Post by moggyfan on Jul 17, 2009 10:33:38 GMT -5
So, limey, I have a totally off-topic question! It's about the word "hoover."
I have seen this word in many posts (by you & your fellow UK'ers) used as a verb meaning vacuum. In the US, Hoover was a brand of vacuum; so I guess in the UK it morphed into the generic verb for the activity? (Kind of like saying "I'm going to Xerox this paper," where "Xerox" is used to mean "copy"?)
I'm trying to remember now if posters from Australia/New Zealand/Canada use "hoover" as well.
Just the English teacher being ever-curious :-)
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Post by Peach on Jul 17, 2009 11:17:58 GMT -5
Funny you should mention this Moggy. I have been thinking about starting a thread on the various slang (or country-specific) words that pop up on this board.
Some that come to mind: lounge - guess that is the UK equivalent to our living room (LR) nappy - UK for diaper in USA tip - is that a Dumpster or a local landfill for dumping off stuff?
Any others? Should we start a separate thread?
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louise
New Member
Joined: September 2008
Posts: 96
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Post by louise on Jul 17, 2009 12:08:05 GMT -5
If you think a translations thread would be of use I'm more than willing to help peach.
Lounge is indeed a living room but both terms are used in the UK Tip would be local landfill Skip would be dumpster (specifically the trapezoid shaped ones without a lid that are delivered to your home when carrying out major works). Wheelie bin would be a wheeled dumpster (small plastic, individual wheelie bins are increasingly being given to homes around the country instead of putting trash bags out for collection) and of course rubbish is trash/garbage
There are many others I can think of but I won't list them all here!
Hoover is traditionally a brand name here too (infact I live just down the road from a beautiful art deco factory called The Hoover Building which was built for the company) which has ended up in everyday use as a verb.
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Post by limegreen on Jul 17, 2009 21:23:23 GMT -5
Hoover is the brand name being used as the generic, in fact my "hoover" is an Electrolux, and I can't think of anyone in my family who owns or has owned a Hoover hoover. Weird, isn't it? We have great big wheeled bins on the street which I refer to as dumpsters because when I say wheelie bin, I think of those one-household sized ones which are actually wheelable. The big ones on the street have the tiniest of wheels and I think that is only to comply with by-laws that state that you can't park a non-movable structure on the street. They are of a size to accommodate the trash from 40 households. Skips are the item Louise has described, and also the larger open metal receptacles that you see on building sites (construction sites in US) Lounge is the living room, both words are used, my mother calls it the lounge, my father calls it the living room. There is also the sitting room in some houses which is the best room, like the living room but with posher furnishing which hardly ever gets used. Which is in my mind bonkers, my elderly neighbour had her front room as a sitting room, and I actually never sat in it till after her funeral, and these flats are not spacious, she had a bedroom, a box-room (walk in closet), a sitting room, a living room with kitchenette (fancy way of saying kitchen appliances in a largish closet) and a bathroom. And the largest room, the sitting room, was never used! Mostly it is only older people who keep their houses like this. And there's another word, you have closets, we have cupboards which can be large enough to walk into or small enough only to contain an electric meter. When talk about carpet, we mean area rug, and when we say rug, we usually mean smaller rug that is removable. We have curtains, not drapes and blinds not shades and our window screens are net curtains inside for privacy, not mesh screens to prevent insects. And then there is the question of couch, settee or sofa. Love-seat sounds a bit chi-chi to British ears and your end tables are our side tables. And your throw pillows are our cushions. Moving into the kitchen some people call the stove a cooker, and if it is separated into stove top and oven, the stove-top is called the hob. In the bathroom we call the tub a bath, and faucets are taps, the toilet tank is a cistern and the basin is a basin, even if it is in a vanity. Confused? You should be!
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Post by Peach on Jul 17, 2009 22:28:49 GMT -5
Hey Louise and Limegreen This is great! Exactly what I/we need - some definitions of common household terms from country to country. If I start a separate thread, will you copy/paste these posts over there? I guess that is the right way to split away from this thread since we're off on a tangent btw - My maternal ancesters are from Scotland and England and that is my primary genealogical focus. This fits in very nicely!
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Post by moggyfan on Jul 17, 2009 22:55:34 GMT -5
Hey limey & louise
Loved your vocabulary lessons! Some I've heard (mostly from watching BBC tv shows--in fact, a British tv show was where I first heard the word "moggy") & some not (hob? new one to me!)
I would love to read a whole thread with this stuff.
Thanks
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Post by limegreen on Jul 21, 2009 22:38:38 GMT -5
Peach go right ahead and make that thread, I'd be flattered if you included my post.
Anyway, dragging this back on topic, LL did come and take me to IKEA where we managed, with amazing speed, to buy the Poäng armchairs and ottoman, in a lovely shade of blue which matches the bruise I got on my shin form the IKEA trolley - why do these things not have brakes on? We than drove about twenty miles round the city trying with absolutely no succes to find another window fitting showroom. Landlord's sense of direction is deplorable, and although I always know where I am relative to a given point, I found map-reading his ancient maps not a whole lot of help since they didn't show the ring-road or half the city sprawl that has happened in the last 20 years and cut off at the edge just where IKEA is. He got a bit huffy about that and said that not everything he owned was a million years old. It was not the most fun trip I've ever had, but DD and I assembled the Poäng chairs and ottoman in less than half an hour and oh boy oh boy they are so comfy!
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Post by Peach on Jul 22, 2009 0:21:43 GMT -5
Thanks Limey!!
Henceforth, the subthread here on the meaning of words has been restarted at:
By-ways : Slang Words - What's That Mean?
Everyone: Please suppress any urge to continue that topic here and scoot over to By-ways.
Moggyfan, Louise, Limey: Please copy/paste your wonderful definitions over there. Admin says SOS policy does not allow me to do that for you.
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hopehope
Banned
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 3,815
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Post by hopehope on Jul 23, 2009 20:35:59 GMT -5
Whee-hee!!!!
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