Category: English

Wind eyes and eye doors

By Simon

Earlier this year I decided that after many years of renting rooms, flats or houses it was time to buy my own place. After viewing quite a few houses and flats, I chose one at the beginning of May and last week I finally picked up the keys, after months of going back and forth between estate agents, solicitors, financial advisers and banks. Friends had told me of their nightmarish house-buying experiences, so I had an idea of what to expect, and while it has taken quite a long time, it all went more or less smoothly.

Some of the vocabulary used in the house-buying process includes:

  • Property – a house, flat or other dwelling
  • Viewing – to view or have a look at a property you’re thinking about buying or renting
  • Offer – a price offered by the buyer to the seller, usually via an estate agent. This is often lower than the asking price and several offers might be made before one is accepted.
  • Purchase a property – you can say you’re buying a house, but the preferred ‘official’ term is purchase a property
  • Conveyancing – the transfer of legal title of property from one person to another – this is normally what your solicitor does, though it is possible to do it yourself.
  • Searches – checks normally carried out by your solicitor on things like planning restrictions and permissions for the property you’re purchasing.
  • Gazumping – when a seller decides to reject a buyer’s offer, after initially accepting it, in favour of a higher one from someone else.
  • Exchange – when contracts for the buyer or purchaser and the seller or vendor are exchanged. Up to this point either party can withdraw from the transaction.
  • Completion – when the conveyance process is completed – normally a week or so after exchange, though in my case exchange and completion happened on the same day.

Before I move into the house next month I’m having some work done, including rewiring, replacement of windows and doors, and the installation of a new bathroom. The windows and doors man came today to measure the windows and doors that will be replaced. One word he used, reveal, mystified me at first, but I now know it is the outer side of a window or door frame or the jamb. The word jamb comes from the Late Latin gamba (leg), via the Old French jambe (pier, side post of a door).

The word window comes from the Old Norse vindauga (“wind eye”), which replaced the Old English words eagþyrl (eye-hole) and eagduru (eye-door). The word fenester, from the Latin fenestra, was also used in English until the mid 16th century.

Illiteracy and standard language

By Simon

Many primary school children are not becoming fully literate in English because their teachers are apparently letting them use “street talk” in the classroom, according to a report commissioned by the mayor of London and reported in The Guardian today.

One third of children in London have reading difficulties at the age of 11, and the report claims that reasons for this include teachers’ reluctance to ‘correct’ pupils’ English so as not to interfere with their self-expression; indifference among working class parents to their children’s education; and imperfect knowledge of “spelling and syntax” among teachers.

The report’s author, Miriam Gross, a teacher and journalist, recommends a structured use of synthetic phonics to teach literacy.

The report appears to be based, at to some extent, on anecdotal evidence, so the conclusions aren’t necessarily the most reliable. It describes the language used by pupils as “argot mixing linguistic influences from Cockney to Indian” and comments that “White and non-white children alike in deprived inner-city areas often speak “street”, with its own grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation.”

The dictionary definition of literacy is:

  1. the ability to read and write
  2. the ability to use language proficiently

However there are different degrees of literacy, ranging from ‘functional literate’ – those who can read and write what they need to function in everyday life; and ‘highly literate’ – those who are very well-read and write elegant, standard language. Those at the latter end of the continuum might view those at the other end as illiterate, and might describe their language as inarticulate, argot, patois, incoherent grunts or use similarly scathing terms – the report certainly does so. Such judgements are rarely based on a thorough understanding of the varieties of language in question.

Are pupils corrected when they use non-standard language in your country?

Snap, Crackle and Pop

By Simon

Snap, Crackle, and Pop are the cartoon mascots of the breakfast cereal, Kellogg’s Rice Krispies. Those are also supposedly the sounds made by the cereal when you add milk to it and eat it.

I discovered today that the mascots have other names on other languages:

  • Pif! Paf! Pof! in Belgium, Italy & Netherlands
  • Cric! Crac! Croc! in Quebec
  • Pif! Paf! Puf! in Denmark
  • Riks! Raks! Poks! in Finland
  • Knisper! Knasper! Knusper! in Germany
  • Piff! Paff! Puff! in Norway and Sweden
  • Knap! Knaetter! Knak! in South Africa
  • Piff! Paff! Poff! in Switzerland

Do you know of any other names for them?

In-laws once removed

By Simon

The other day I started wondering there are terms to describe your relationship with your in-law’s relatives. For example, my sister’s husband is my brother-in-law, but is his sister some kind of in-law to me? She is my sister’s sister-in-law, but as far I can work out, there is no particular term to describe my remote connection to her – sister-in-law once removed, perhaps. Then there’s her husband and their children – are they any kind of in-laws to my sister or me?

Are specific terms for relationships in any of the languages you know?

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, in-law is “anyone of a relationship not natural” and the earliest known use of the phrase in writing was in the form of brother-in-law. The law in question is Canon Law (church law), which defines degrees of relationship within which marriage is prohibited.

Conseil de l’Union européenne

By Simon

If you would like to work for the Conseil de l’Union européenne (Council of the European Union, aka Consilium) or other EU institutions, you have to take the entry examinations in a second language. According to an article I came across today, the British government believes this is unfair for Brits and has arranged that from next year the pre-selection tests for EU civil service exams can be taken in the candidate’s first language.

Has anybody considered trying to encourage more Brits to learn foreign languages, or is that just wishful thinking?

Poubelle

By Simon

Une poubelle

One of the things we discussed last night in the French conversation group was the origins of the word poubelle (bin / trash can). Fortunately one of us had an French etymological dictionary and we discovered that such receptacles are named after Eugène Poubelle (1831-1907), a lawyer, administrator and diplomat who was préfet of the Seine region of France and introduced the bin to Paris.

It was on 7th March 1884 that Poubelle decreed that owners of buildings must provide those who lived there with three covered containers for household rubbish, which was to be sorted into perishable items, paper and cloth, crockery and shells.

The containers proved popular with Parisians, who named them Boîtes Poubelle after Monsieur Poubelle, although building owners were not so keen as they had to pay for the containers and to have them emptied. Another group who didn’t welcome the Boîtes Poubelle were the chiffoniers (rag-and-bone men), who made their living from collecting rubbish.

As well as meaning bin, poubelle can also be used to refer to old cars in a poor state of repair – old bangers in the UK. Related words include:

  • camion-poubelle – bin lorry
  • jeter à la poubelle – to throw in the rubbish
  • sac poubelle – bin liner

The name Poubelle comes from pou bel (peu beau – just beautiful), from the dialect of Pas-de-Calais in northern France.

In English there are many words for poubelle. In the UK, for example, the small ones used inside are known as waste baskets, waste paper baskets, rubbish bins or bins; and the larger ones used outside are known as dustbins, rubbish bins, wheelie bins (if they have wheels) or bins. The ones in public places are known as litter bins. Names for such receptacles in the USA include trash can and garbage can, and I’m sure there are others.

In the UK rubbish is collected by bin men (the majority of them are men) who drive (dust)bin lorries / rubbish trucks / dust carts, and is taken to (rubbish) tips / dumps / landfills / recycling centres / incinerators. There are also official terms for all these – refuse disposal operatives, and such like. What about in other countries?

Jacob’s join

By Simon

Jacob’s join is the term used by my mum and her friends to describe a get-together that involves each person bringing food – usually something they’ve made themselves – to share with the others. I would probably call such a gathering a potluck dinner/supper.

According to Wikipedia, the word potluck pr pot-luck first appeared in England during the 16th century in the workd of Thomas Nashe. At that time it referred to “food provided for an unexpected or uninvited guest, the luck of the pot”. It took on the sense of a meal where guest contribute dishes in the late 19th / early 20th century in the USA, and is thought to come from the Chinook Jargon word potlatch (gift), which comes from the Nootka p̓ačiƛ (to give in ceremony).

Other terms for Jacob’s join / potluck include: potluck dinner, spread, Jacob’s supper, faith supper, covered dish supper, pitch-in, carry-in, bring-a-plate and smorgasbord.

Is this kind of meal popular in your area? If so, what do you call it?

Galapagar

By Simon

galapagar, (noun, m) – sitio donde abundan los galápagos (a place abounding in tortoises).

I heard of this word today and it particularly appealed to me for its very specific meaning. It seems to be rare and doesn’t appear in any of my Spanish dictionaries, though it does appear in the Diccionario de la Lengua Española.

Related words include:

  • galápago – tortoise; mouldboard; ingot, pig; light saddle; sidesaddle
  • galapagueño – (from) the Galapagos (Islands)
  • galapagueña – native of the Galapagos (Islands)

At home

By Simon

One of my friends sent out an email this week to announce that he will be “at home” (to visitors) on Sunday afternoon, meaning that he’s putting on a party.

One definition of “at home” in my English dictionary is, “giving an informal party at one’s own home”, and “an at home” can refer to such a party. This is apparently a British usage and not a very common one.

Is this expression or something similar used in other English-speaking countries?

I need to go cashpoint

By Simon

Last night one of my friends said that she needed “to go cashpoint”, meaning that she needed go to the cashpoint (ATM) to get some money. This usage struck me as quite strange at the time, but I think I’ve heard similar constructions before.

Expressions like “I need to go eat” or “I need to go sleep” also sound not quite right to me, though not as strange as “to go cashpoint”. I’d normally say something like “I need to go and eat” or “I need to go for something to eat”.

Have you heard or do you use similar constructions?