h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have a question!

Can you help me with the term "homely", please. In BrE it means more or less "homey, homelike, nice, comfortable," right? And in AmE it means "ugly, unattractive, common." Are those definitions correct, and if so, how come there's such a biiiig difference between the British and the American meaning? Also, what about other countries: what does "homely" mean in Australia and in other English-speaking countries?

Thanks for your help!

I'm Australian, and I've never heard the word 'homely' used here. To me, it doesn't mean anything in particular - I'd probably have to ask for an explanation.

Does that help?

Yes, it does help! At least now I know that I shouldn't use the word in Australia.

Glad to be of service!

* in*

HOMELY! That most annoying and elusively defined word!

Both the AmE and BrE are correct, it depends on the context.

If I walked into your house and said it looked very homely, then I would be saying it looked cosy, welcoming, and generally nice.

If, however, I was talking about a girl I went out with on Friday night, and called her homely, you'd be sure that I wasn't about to leap into bed with her. She is plain, probably rather drab and unappealing.

Hope that helps

Sorry I've been neglecting my lovely language people recently

Kat

Thanks for the explanation! I think I better avoid that word, otherwise I'll end up saying something rude by accident!

Try and think about it this way.

The root is "home"

Therefore, something that looks "homely" will feel and look like a "home", this can either mean it's very ordinary or that it's warm and domesticated (think of baking bread or your average kettle for example, two very different things but both putting you in mind of home.)

The thread doesn't seem to be thriving . Or does it 'continue' elsewhere?
Can I ask a question?
Thanks. A student of mine doesn't like the expression 'How are you doing?' which she keeps finding in letters. I said I thought it meant the same as 'How are you', but perhaps there's more to say about it. Is it perhaps American English?
Just shows one can know words like 'incomprehensible' and 'sophisticated' and have doubts about most common things.

All so Australian living in the bush homely means you have a face like the back end of a truck not nice but definitely discriptive

Dear Hayayfi! Nice of you to pop up.!
So - do Australians (living in the bush or elsewhere) say 'How are you doing'?
o

We would say "how's it going?" it can mean several things depending on the context in which it is asked

face to face.... hows your day been so far?
in a letter......what have you been up to fill me in
person at the check out......I am not really interested but I am being polite

should add people in the bush have a different take on language to people in the city and from region to region too

Hi, guys.
I'm the Head of the German Department and just wanted to ask whether there's still anyone here.
Did you notice that Kat, the boss of the Language Thing, hasn't been here for ages anymore? I just checked, she wasn't online since October 2005. Which means she'll probably not come again and there will be no page updates anymore.

What shall we do now?

I think I can take over my department, but I'm not sure about the whole place - not sure how much work it really is. And it also depends on you all.

For now I want to see how many people we still are.

(this message will go to all departments)

Hello
It's great you're trying to wake this thread up, Tavaron!
I would like to participate but I am a newbie. I am Russian, but there doesn't seem to be a Russian Department

No, I don't think there is one.
I'm just trying to get Kat's e-mail address. We'll see what I find out. Maybe we have a chance here.
And then we could maybe get a Russian Department if we have enough Russian people or people who learn Russian.

How did the German department work in the good old days?
And how could all the 'non-British' benefit from the language thing?

Well, it didn't work much different, but there were page updates. And for non-english speakers it's nice to speak their native language every now and then.

I think there's no Russian department because nobody can write/type the Cyrillic letters, the querty keyboards just don't do them.
Pity there's nobody to improve our English anymore. Kat was really good at it.

But there's also a department for Mandarin...

Yes, pity. That's something I can't do either.