The Turner Ink blog contains rants, bloopers, observations and opinions. It also has handy tips on grammar and punctuation such as colons: semicolons; and full stops. As well as some very useful ‘how tos’. Feel free to leave comments. Be nice though.

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Archive for the 'Word stuff' category

Say what? Are you up to speed with teen slang?

14th
Jul
by Sarah Turner

I’m part of a mentoring programme that mentors teenagers in south west London. And during a mentors get-together last night we had a quiz on teenage slang.

This will:
1. Make you feel very old if you get them all wrong.
2. Get you instant respect on Facebook from your teenage rellys if you get them all right.

But remember if you say things like ‘down with the kids’ you really aren’t.

See how you get on.

1. How might you embarrass a friend?

Dekecking
Baring
Gopping

2. If a girl was to describe an attractive boy, what might she say?

Mcfittie
Grimmer
Bosh

3. If something was amusing it could be described as:

Chenzed
Savage
Hollage

4. If a young person has too much too drink they would be:

Chenzed
Confuzzled
Bagged

5. “You turn into a right…….when you’re drunk”

Bosh
Grimmer
Meg

And what do these all mean?

Redonkulous
Sketchy
Bless
Old School
My bad
Man up
Killa
Netglow
Facebook minute
Text purgatory

Anyway, gotta bounce. Answers tomorrow.


Tags: teen slang
Posted in Word stuff | comments icon 2 Comments »

The origins of Polari: How Bona to Vada your Jolly Old Eek

12th
Apr
by Sarah Turner

In a recent blog post about the Evolving English exhibition, I mentioned Polari.

Polari (or alternatively palari, parlare, parlary) was a secret language or gay slang, popular with the British gay community from about 1900 until the 1970s, and made famous by the 1960s radio show Round the Horne with Kenneth Williams.

But what are its origins? Well, Polari is a complex language and a mixture of rhyming slang; backslang; Italian; Occitan; French, parlyaree, a slang used by sailors and travellers; cant, a slang used by criminals; and Yiddish. There was a West End dialect, based on theatre-speak and an East End dialect that was spoken by sailors and canal men. And because of the popularity of the radio show, Polari could often be found in numerous middle-class households in the Sixties.

Kenneth Williams - Round The HorneI recall my Mother saying to me when I’d fallen over “come on, give me a butcher’s at your lallies and dannies” Which is a heady combination of cockney rhyming slang (butcher’s hook, look), Polari for legs and Yorkshire slang for hands. I’ve no idea how she knows Yorkshire slang. She comes from Tooting.

The problem with Polari is that, until recently, so little of it had been written down. So it’s been difficult to determine what words are actually Polari and what words are common ol’ slang.

The following words though are generally considered to be Polari.

Bijou : Small
Bevvy : Drink
Bod : Body
Bold : Daring
Bona : Good, Nice
Buns : Bum cheeks
Butch : Masculine
Cackle : Gossip
Camp : Effeminate
Crimper : Hairdresser
Dish : Nice looking man
Dizzy : Scatty
Dolly : Pretty
Drag : Women’s clothes
Eek : Face (Backslang ecaf)
Esong/Onk : Nose
Fantabulosa : Wonderful
Glossies : Magazines
Hoofer : Dancer
Kaffies : Trousers		 Lallies : Legs
Latty : House
Lills : Hands
Luppers : Fingers
Mince : A camp walk
Nachy : Night
Ogles or Orbs :Eyes
Omi : Man
Omi Polone : Gay man
Polari : Talk, to chat
Polone : Woman
Pots : Teeth
Riah : Hair (back slang)
Riah shusher : Hairdresser
Scarper : To run off
Slap : Make-up
Thews : Thighs
Troll : To go walking
Vada : See, to look
Zhoosh : Style, tart up

What’s interesting is how many words that are Polari in origin are still in everyday use, considering the language fell out of favour in the 1970s. A quick search on Google came up with these results.

“A bijou house with potential”
“Buns of steel; Best Butt exercise for summer”
“George Clooney is a dish”
“Videos for Eddie Izzard in drag”
“Men’s magazines and women’s glossies share the pain of recession”
“Katy Perry wears too much slap”
“In Coronation Street: Simon scarpers”
“Do you ever troll around Cape Moreton?”
“Look at him mincing around, like he thinks he’s real cute.” (Annie Hall)
“John Sergeant lands Oldie’s hoofer of the year award”

And do you remember Queer Eye for the Straight Guy? Zhoosh was said in every single episode!

Any other Polari words that are in everyday use? Let us know in the comments.

Further Reading:
Fantabulosa: A Dictionary of Polari and Gay Slang by Paul Baker.


Tags: polari, slang
Posted in Word stuff | comments icon 5 Comments »

An Englishman’s home is his castle, pad, dig, shack, crib, gaff…Evolving English at the British Library

9th
Feb
by Sarah Turner

If you’re in the area of Londinium between now and April 3rd, get yourself down to the British Library for their Evolving English: One Language, Many Voices exhibition.

The exhibition explores the beginnings of Anglo Saxon right through to current rap music and shows how English has evolved over the last 1500 years from its small island origins to become one of the world’s most popular languages.

So what’s to see? There’s a 1000-year-old version of Beowulf; works by Chaucer; the King James Bible, ‘an eye for an eye’, ‘salt of the earth’, the sign of the times’ and all that. Plus first editions of Shakespeare who, of course, introduced us to such words as eyeball, puking, mimic, amazement and rant.

Gawd blimey. Don't drop your aitches

But it’s not all high-brow malarkey. There are video clips of My Fair Lady’s Eliza Doolittle “Well if I was doing it proper, what was you sniggering at? Have I said anything I oughtn’t?” And recordings of Kenneth Williams speaking polari – a sort of gay slang – as Julian in radio’s Round the Horne “How bona to vada your jolly old eek.”

One of the pamphlets on show, published in 1854, advises the lower middle classes that if they wish to climb the social ladder they shouldn’t drop their aitches. Head and house should never be pronounced ‘ead and ‘ouse although the aitch in herb and hospital should remain silent. A tradition we’ve now done away with in the UK although the US continues to say ’erb.

And there’s an amusing section on U and non U English usage (upper class and non upper class). Amusing, because I can recall being told off as a child for saying serviette instead of napkin. U words include napkin, lavatory, vegetables, lunch, sofa and pudding while non-U are serviette, toilet, greens, dinner, settee and sweet.

As part of the exhibition, you can record your voice for future linguistic studies. I felt it was my duty to have the dulcet tones of my sarf London accent saved for posterity. And duly obliged by reading Mr Tickle by Roger Hargreaves (pronouncing Tickle like a true Laaandaner: ti-kawl)

What this outstanding exhibition so clearly demonstrates is how there’s no such thing as pure English. It’s an ever evolving language, influenced by social, cultural and historical changes, continuously incorporating words from other languages and happily discarding words it no longer has use for.

If you love etymology, you’ll love this exhibition. It’s on until April 3rd and it’s free.


Tags: anglo saxon, british library, language, polari, shakespeare
Posted in Word stuff | comments icon 5 Comments »

Ennui, Obfuscate, Imbroglio and other words that make you sound clever

31st
Dec
by Sarah Turner

Of all the presents I got for Christmas, one of my faves was a book called How to Sound Clever: Master the 600 English words you pretend to understand when you don’t by Hubert van deb Bergh and it’s a dazzling collection of sumptuous words such as denouement, anthropomorphise and obfuscate.

I recently chatted to a chap at a mulled wine and organic cheese party (yes, really) who used the word contemptuous (expressing contempt) when he was actually looking for the word contemporaneous (happening during the same period of time).

What do you say in situations like this? Do you correct the person in question (Oi, dufus, I think you mean…) or do you smile sweetly and nod eagerly? (I chose the latter.)

Mind you, I once answered a maths question at school with the utter belief that approximately meant exactly, on the button, accurately – rather than the exact opposite. (In my defence, I was only 10.)

So here are a few words from the book that you may or may not know. But see how many you can squeeze in tonight when you’re out partying.

  • Anachronistic (adj): Very old-fashioned
  • Anthropomorphise (verb): To attribute human form to something not human
  • Behemoth (noun): A huge thing, especially an organisation
  • Conflation (noun): The act of fusing two or more ideas together
  • Denouement (noun): Climax of several actions when the outcome becomes clear
  • Dichotomy (noun): A contrast between two things that are polar opposites
  • Ennui (noun): Dissatisfaction when nothing exciting happens for a while
  • Fetid (adj): Unsavoury smell
  • Garrulous (adj): Talkative, especially on unimportant matters
  • Halcyon (adj): A happy and peaceful time in the past
  • Imbroglio (noun): A messy and embarrassing situation
  • Obfuscate (verb): To bewilder
  • Quango: A quasi non-governmental organisation like the Press Complaints Commission
  • Perfunctory (adj): Done carelessly, as a matter of routine
  • Parse (verb): To examine something closely by breaking it up into parts
  • Sanguine (adj): Optimistic, upbeat
  • Vicarious (adj.) Experiencing feelings via someone else’s description

Posted in Book reviews, Word stuff | comments icon 2 Comments »

‘I’ll bare that in mind’. Or will I? Is it bare or bear?

8th
Dec
by Sarah Turner

There are some words which get even the most competent writers in a twist. I always struggle to spell the town Grimsby (luckily it’s not a word I have to type often). And I have to really think about the homonyms bear and bare. Is it ‘bare that in mind’ or ‘bear that in mind’?

So this post is for me as much as it is for you.

Bare means lacking a natural, usual or appropriate covering i.e. butt naked. It also means exposed, unfinished, empty, lacking, having nothing left or added, or not being disguised or embellished in any way. And it means reveal or uncover.

So anything to do with nakedness, uncovering or revealing is bare:

  • She was completely bare faced
  • Bare as the day he was born
  • With my bare hands
  • He bared his teeth
  • Riding barebacked
  • Bare one’s soul
  • The house was stripped back to its bare bones
  • The top revealed a bare midriff

Whereas bear (as well as those big furry things) means to carry or transport, to show a feeling, to have a name, to give birth, to produce fruit or flowers, to support weight, to go in a certain direction, to show patience and to aim a gun.

  • Can you bear with me a moment?
  • At the next turning bear right
  • To bear the cost
  • He’ll bear the scars for years
  • Will it bear the weight?
  • She’ll bear the brunt of that
  • Bear down
  • I think it will bear fruit every year
  • They’ve been ordered to bear arms
  • I’ll bear that in mind

So if it’s not anything to do with nakedness, uncovering or revealing – it’s bear.

For more tips on grammar and punctuation download the ebook.


Tags: bare, bear, homonyms
Posted in Grammar tips, Word stuff | comments icon 9 Comments »

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