For the last couple of months, I have been saving some terms and phrases I found on other sites that seemed odd to me or that I had never heard (and don't really know, but could guess the meaning from the context).
All of the writers are native English speakers (although some are bilingual) so I assume the terms are used in their neck of the woods (this expression means that part of the world where they come from). What got me thinking about these different terms was an expression I used in one of my own posts: Everything is gravy. As gravy is the luxurious extra you can put on a meal, this expression means it is above and beyond the minimum; a luxury.
Below are the expressions I have collected. I have included a link to the post with the expression. If you know what these mean or the origin of these, I'd appreciate your explanations. Also, feel free to add any that maybe you find "interesting."
Karyn Romeis: Parents need to step up the oche
Michael Hanley quote of Suzanne Shaw (Ireland) All of them are at the coalface of the current economic climate and many of them use tools like LinkedIn
Karyn Romeis: Friday sees the start of the BBC Proms season. This is a series of classical music concerts held around the country which has been running for 115 years, now. (Note: this was interesting because in the US a prom is a formal dance for high school students).
Ken Allen: Your fingers will be running up and down the keyboard like little fiddler crabs
8 comments:
You usually step up to the oche. It's a raised line you stand behind when playing darts - a popular british pub game. In this case, it's similar to stepping up to the mark or taking responsibility... or it's a case of bad parenting!
Andy
http://phdblog.net/
...and I'd bet you would never guess it's pronounced "ockey" (as in "hockey" minus the "H").
Michael
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Thanks Andy and Michael. I've never heard of it and I would never have guessed its pronunciation!
In the US we say, "step up to the plate" (which I had assumed this meant) coming from baseball. The "plate" is home plate. In baseball, you can step out of the batter's box and the pitcher can't pitch to you at that point. So stepping up to the plate means you are ready to play, thus take responsibility and be active in a problem.
Ha ha ha Virginia!
Sue Waters is an aquaculturalist as you probably know.
One of the first resorts I visited in New Zealand (1974) was Kaiteriteri. It has amazing mud flats. At that time the sands were coated with billions of tiny fiddler crabs that scuttled away as you walked, each carrying their amazing 'fiddle' claw with them. I'd never seen such an activity on the ground before.
When I wrote my comment to Sue about her being busy with her other (new) blogs, I had visions of her fingers, like fiddler crabs, running hither-and-thither all over the keyboard.
Catchya later
Ken, In the US, we might refer to it as craw fish (pronounced cray or craw) which I think are really a crab rather than a fish.
We would probably use in this part of the US: busy as a beaver. This refers to the never ending building of beaver dams: taking apart, putting back together, constantly working on something.
We also use other animal expressions such as: Like lemmings to the ocean. But that is more like people abandoning a project or following the crowd. I think your post was more about the constant activity of moving over the key board.
Oops Virginia,
are we talking about the same thing here? Did you see my included image?
These creatures are tiny crabs about 20mm across. They scuttle about the surface of the sand. The 'CLAW' (not craw or cray) gives them the name as they shift it up and down in a see-saw motion not unlike the bow of a fiddler.
Catchya later
Oops, Ken. No I didn't see the link. I'm still trying to get the visual of your metaphor though.
Aaah! I guess you had to have been there!
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