LL-L "Lexicon" 2004.09.12 (11) [D/E]

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From: Global Moose Translations <globalmoose at t-online.de>
Subject: LL-L "Lexicon" 2004.09.12 (04) [E]

John Feather wrote:
> "And I'll have you know that, in my eight years in the USA, I asked
several
> smart, educated people what "varsity" meant, and no-one could ever tell
me.
> So there."
>
> Maybe it's one of those politeness things. But I once wanted to know what
> you call in US English the sort of metal container pipe tobacco or cough
> lozenges used to come in. Since I happened to be invited to a party by an
> American woman and some of her other guests were Americans I put the point
> to them in the course of conversation. I didn't get any sensible answers.
A
> year or two later I was invited by the same woman again but told that I
had
> annoyed her guests (or maybe her) before by demanding precise information
on
> a trivial point and I wasn't to do it again. I politely remembered a
> previous engagement. I deduce that either she was as mad as a hattress or
> asking Americans what words mean breaks some bizarre tabu. Maybe something
> to do with the melting pot?

Well, since those people included my ex-husband and in-laws, I can't imagine
it would have broken a taboo. Still, you never know. I thought it odd, for
example that it is such a no-no in the States to "menshun bodily funcheons",
as an 11-year-old once explained to me in an e-mail. This even seems to
include such things as yawning, sneezing, and scratching an itch on your
elbow!

In contrast, I always found that Dutch people are much more at home with
those topics than even the most down-to-earth Germans are. I usually have a
hard time getting people to believe that, in Dutch, it is quite common and
harmless to say that somebody "is op z'n gat gevallen" - literarily saying
that (s)he fell on his/her (a***)hole! Also, there are quite a few harmless
verses for little children (nursery rhmes, little songs) that happily
mention excrements, like, for example:

Van turelure letje,
De boer die liet een wind;
Hij ving hem in een netje,
En hij bracht hem aan zijn vrind.
"Wel, tureluur, tureluur, tingeling,
Wat breng je me daar een stinkend ding!"

or, even worse:

Teer lanteer lantantje,
de boer, die liet een scheet,
deed hem in een mandje
en bracht hem naar zijn peet.
"Dag peet, dag peet,
morgen breng ik weer een scheet.
Zet'm op de tafel,
dan lijkt ie op'n wafel,
zet'm op de grond,
dan is het een hoopje - poep!"

This was sung to my then two-year old daughter by her father's
seventy-something aunt - "little old lady" type! Since there are Americans
present, I'm going to skip the translation. :-)

Gabriele Kahn

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From: Ed Alexander <edsells at cogeco.ca>
Subject: LL-L "Lexicon" 2004.09.12 (08) [E]

At 12:19 PM 09/12/04 -0700, Kevin Caldwell wrote:
>No taboo that I know of.  You probably just ran into a group of Americans
>who don't really care about linguistic matters (probably not hard to do).
If
>you had asked me, I would have answered your question and not been offended
>in the least.  Pipe tobacco comes in a can (leading to the old telephone
>prank, "Do you have Prince Albert in a can?...  You do? Well, why don't you
>let him out?") and throat lozenges, AKA cough drops, come in a box.

Oh, no Kevin, if the container is metal, in Canada it comes in a
"tin."  Tomatoes, tobacco, whatever.

Ed Alexander, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

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From: Thomas <t.mcrae at uq.net.au>>
Subject: LL-L "Lexicon" 2004.09.12 (08) [E]

On 12/9/04 Kevin Caldwell <kcaldwell31 at comcast.net> wrote

> Pipe tobacco comes in a can (leading to the old telephone
> prank, "Do you have Prince Albert in a can?...  You do? Well, why don't
you
> let him out?")

Reminds me of the old Scots one when the shop keeper was asked
"Huv ye any Wild Woodbine ?" ( dirt cheap in all ways cigarette).
"Aye" says the victim.
"Weel tame them !"
Regards
Tom
Tom Mc Rae PSOC
Brisbane Australia
"The masonnis suld mak housis stark and rude,
To keep the pepill frome the stormes strang,
And he that fals, the craft it gois all wrang."
>>From 15th century Scots Poem 'The Buke of the Chess'

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From: john feather <johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk>
Subject: Lexicon

Kevin: Thanks for the info on "can" and "box". In the UK both containers
would be "tins". I think the British are generally familiar with US "can"
for their "tin" as in "tin/can of baked beans" but the different scope of
"box" in the two languages is less well understood.

John Feather johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk

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