Only in the British Army…

Jul 16

RossFun , , Comments Off

“We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area.”
– Maj Mike Shearer, UK military spokesman, Iraq

(source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6295138.stm)

A few of my favourite things… er, words.

May 26

RossMusings , 1 Comment

I’ve always enjoyed words – the more unusual, the better. Sometimes it’s the meaning (especially true of words from other languages); where there is no English equivalent. Sometimes it’s the sound they make, or the way they roll off the tongue.

A few of my favourites:

  • Zeitgeist
  • Schadenfreude
  • Tmesis
  • Plinth

I’m also a fan of long-forgotten phrases… Things that were once commonly heard in the playgrounds of the UK that have somehow drifted into obscurity, such as:

  • “Urgh! Miss – Johnny did a blow-off”, or
  • “You’re such a Jonah”.

Of course, I exclude the insults that we once hurled at each other… In this enlightened age, terms such as ‘flid’ or ‘spaz’ are taboo, and quite rightly so. However, when we were seven or eight years old, we were blissfully unaware of their origins – consequently such appellations were circulated with gay abandon (hark at me; swallowed a dictionary today?).

Not that you hear anything of the sort in today’s society… They probably know more swear words and street slang than I ever did.

Enough from me – anyone else have any good words to share?