All Questions
33
questions
5
votes
0
answers
141
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Is there any implication of drunkenness in "high lonesome" as used in the term "high lonesome sound"?
Wiktionary has the following entry for "high lonesome sound":
high lonesome sound (music) An expressively emotional, powerful and earthy style of musical expression associated mainly with ...
- 168k
2
votes
1
answer
142
views
Unusual conjugation of "to be" [closed]
I encountered several times a certain type of sentences (in colloquial contexts) which were clearly grammatically incorrect but seems to be widely spread and, as a non-native English speaker, I would ...
- 121
11
votes
2
answers
2k
views
"Swear" as a noun as opposed to "swear word"
I'm a teenager from Chicago. During my childhood (and, presumably, that of almost all English-speaking children), I was taught that some words were "bad" words; these words were ...
- 890
-1
votes
1
answer
51
views
Does anyone know what the word "Some" means here? [closed]
Just to context:
I've playing a gang context game and after a funeral the rival gang drives by shooting and then the characters that were at the funeral have the car blown up and then they have to run ...
- 127
2
votes
1
answer
727
views
Are "orange" and "ginger" synonymous (cat color)?
I recently watched a movie A street cat named Bob, where the cat was described as ginger cat.
I thought the color of the cat is described as orange, too. (confirmed with google image search)
The ...
- 657
8
votes
5
answers
1k
views
Is there an English equivalent of the Scots usage of "boak" (meaning retch) as a noun?
"Boak" is a Scots word that means "retch" (or vomit), and like retch it can be used as a verb, i.e. "that makes me want to boak" means "that makes me want to retch&...
- 83
6
votes
2
answers
1k
views
What does this bit of Cockney mean?
In the 2nd episode of the 3rd season of Would I Lie To You?, a fragment is shown from a 1985 episode of London Weekend Television's The Six O'Clock Show, with someone purporting to be a former Teddy ...
- 421
1
vote
1
answer
2k
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What dialect is "You wants I should do it for ya?"
I heard this phrasing in an episode of a TV show, but I can't remember what for the life of me. I just remember how weird it sounded, because no one else talked like that in the series?
It was a ...
- 143
8
votes
2
answers
13k
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Etymology of using "ya" instead of "you"
I have noticed that some people in parts of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio often say "ya" instead of "you"? As in "Didya do your homework?" instead of "Did you do your homework?".
Does anyone know ...
- 135
7
votes
2
answers
4k
views
The term “handy” in “Of Mice and Men”
[Candy] "That's the boss's son," he said quietly. "Curley's
pretty handy. He done quite a bit in the ring. He's a lightweight, and he's handy."
"Well, let him be handy," said George. "He don't ...
- 92.5k
0
votes
2
answers
771
views
What is the meaning of the phrase, I'm partial to your abracadabra? [closed]
On Ian Dury's first album, there is a song titled, I'm partial to your Abracadabra.
The song, as all of Durys' songs is filled with lots of London slang, most of which is recognisable. However, i ...
- 1
4
votes
1
answer
293
views
Translation and etymology of a slang passage
While reading software-user reviews on Google Play Store, I happened to run across the following (verbatim):
"I'm game ginger an as wet as, a otters pocket full support to do you will ave to be ...
- 41
1
vote
1
answer
1k
views
Meaning and origins of the American slang expression "ad' a boy, shooter!" [closed]
What does the American slang expression ad' a boy, shooter! mean? In high school I had an American teacher who would always say this, can't remember which state he was from, I think it's an ...
- 21
21
votes
3
answers
2k
views
What is the origin of "six" as a word to refer to the toilet?
A common euphemism for the toilet in the spoken Welsh of north Wales is "lle chwech", literally "six place" ("chwech" being "six" in Welsh). Note this refers mainly to the room rather than the ...
- 423
5
votes
1
answer
3k
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What's the semantic content of the word "yo" in the speech of Jesse from Breaking Bad, and in which dialects is this construct found in the real world
So I've been watching breaking bad. A really interesting dialectical feature of the character Jesse, is his use of the word "yo".
At first I thought nothing of it, it's just "slang&...
- 1,151