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

what distinguishs a waggon from a wagon?the side of the road they drive on?or is one just bigger than the other.

K, be Proud, be Loud.

In British English I can only think of goods wagons that go on trains and horse and cart type wagons, both of which have just a single G. Then there is the incredible shrinking 'wagon wheel' a confectionery delight (Or is it that I have grown?) which I see has just been purchased by a US company, though no news yet re: spelling changes!

Could we not have, say, a ten posting 'Sin-bin' for bad jokes? (Yes, DJ, that means you!)

*peeks out*
Its not a bad joke - I bet its in at least one comedians "review of the year" this Christmas...

Anyhow - I''ve never heard of "gg" wagons...but in a motorcycle stunts program there was a man going for the world record wagon-jump. Turned out to be articulated lorries!

Did you notice, Duncan, that your Anno Dome and Eye sulk post was number 2000?

Yes - but pedants have pointed out that since there was no "post zero", it should have been in 2001.

*still laughing over "Anno Dome n' Eye"*

DJ:

Perhaps a waggon is pulled by two horses?

Oh, never mind!

He he - two gigis Like it.

Look, K, your the boss around here. Is there nothing to be done about young Duncan here? Thats twice in one day!

I can't claim credit for that gigis one - it was implicit in K's post.

*Incidentally:I'm off tomorrow, so you might have a chance to get back on thread again*

I sincerely apologise to Gnomon. Sometimes I get carried away and try and match people up - because I often see people asking questions somewhere which have been answered elsewhere and it is one of my aims in life to make sure everyone has access to all the knowledge they need.

I have since been to his page and paid my reverence.

It is said that England and America are two nations separated by the same language,

One of my American relations seems to confuse the parts of a female body. When he sees a girl with a trim bottom, he will insist in speaking with a loud voice and tell the girl that he would just love to pat her Fanny.

It is said that England and America are two nations separated by the same language,

One of my American relations seems to confuse the parts of a female body. When he sees a girl with a trim bottom, he will insist in speaking with a loud voice and tell the girl that he would just love to pat her Fanny.

The OE(Compact) would have us believe that we adapted the German "wagen" in the 16th century. (I wonder whether there were wheeled conveyances previously and if so what they were called? Truck? Trolley? - no we don't want to go there. CART. It was cart.)
Thereafter waggon became common. The illustrious Dr. Johnson showed waGon in his dictionary although the examples he quoted were all waGGon.
Miss K may have the truth of the matter. There is (or was) a pub in Manchester called the "WaGGon and HorseS". Will you all join me in a search for the "WaGon and Horse"?

And then there's the other one:
in the 16th century the accepted spelling was "LUrry" and this continued - certainly in the north of England - up to the end of 19th cent. although "LOrry" gained in popularity during Victorian times, as I recall.

"I'm going to the seaside on a chara."
Anyone old enough to remember that? If not, take a look at "Heartbeat" on the telly. I've seen a chara on that. "Charabanc" (Motor coach) comes from the French "char à banc(s)" (farm)cart with bench(es). The lusty & innovative paysans after harvest (and any other excuse they could think of) would chuck a bunch of benches on to the back of a cart and trundle off on a picnic (before the Academie Francaise forbade le pique-nique) with their bottles of paint stripper and smelly cheeses which were perhaps not so bad in the fresh air or what passed for fresh air in France.
(Long sentence, no suggestions)

The OE(Compact) would have us believe that we adapted the German "wagen" in the 16th century. (I wonder whether there were wheeled conveyances previously and if so what they were called? Truck? Trolley? - no we don't want to go there. CART. It was cart.)
Thereafter waggon became common. The illustrious Dr. Johnson showed waGon in his dictionary although the examples he quoted were all waGGon.
Miss K may have the truth of the matter. There is (or was) a pub in Manchester called the "WaGGon and HorseS". Will you all join me in a search for the "WaGon and Horse"?

And then there's the other one:
in the 16th century the accepted spelling was "LUrry" and this continued - certainly in the north of England - up to the end of 19th cent. although "LOrry" gained in popularity during Victorian times, as I recall.

"I'm going to the seaside on a chara."
Anyone old enough to remember that? If not, take a look at "Heartbeat" on the telly. I've seen a chara on that. "Charabanc" (Motor coach) comes from the French "char à banc(s)" (farm)cart with bench(es). The lusty & innovative paysans after harvest (and any other excuse they could think of) would chuck a bunch of benches on to the back of a cart and trundle off on a picnic (before the Academie Francaise forbade le pique-nique) with their bottles of paint stripper and smelly cheeses which were perhaps not so bad in the fresh air or what passed for fresh air in France.
(Long sentence, no suggestions)

Huh, Plaguesville is even older than I - recalling Victorian times.
I can vouch for charas. When you travelled in them, did you sing? If so, does your repertoire include "There were 3 jews from Jericho", which contains the lovely "Chara,chara,bang,bang,bang"? When I was young (pause for rotten tomatoes) a single-decker bus was called a coach, but this usage seems to have died out or is it a bus if it works a regular route and a coach if it goes off on a mystery tour?
Also I remember as a young temp being asked by the boss to "order me a hackney".I don't think even "cab" is in common usage any more. The taxi is ubiquitous (my students think it's a native Chinese word)

Good morning! May I just say that the two g's and horses were a deliberate, if clumsy, attempt at humor on my part. Don't worry, I'll practice at home in front of a mirror.

I'm sorry to return to the canine dimension of this thread - I know it's now considered taboo by some contributors - but I'm curious to know why a dog is referred to as a pooch.

Yes, I think buses (including trolley buses !!) are regular route vehicles, *but* I think the distinction is to do with journey length.
Consider: London Transport (which begat London Country) had buses *and* Green Line Coaches. The buses were local routes but in the country, while the Green Line Coaches traveled long distances accros London and it's outer reaches. They were still on timetabled routes, but were coaches. Hire coachs *usually* run long distances, and the more recent coach operators (competing with the railways and their coaches, carriages and cars) run timetabled services, but over longer distances (e.g. London to Bristol).
Bus comes from omnibus, but why that was used for local transport (probably when it was still horse-drawn) is beyond my knowing.
May I hand on the reigns of this investigation to others ?
If we can keep this thread going for the next thousand years (there's certainly plenty of material in the language), it will be an infinitely more important monument to the year 2000 than any dome or wheel.

In metropolitan areas of Britain, a "hackney" refres to a taxi which can only pick up on phone bookings whereas a cab can be flagged down on the street.

Ah! The Mystery Tour! (Never went on one! Why the nostalgia? Silly boy)

Are there not those amongst us who were supposed to be in Belgium?

Who, what or where is 'Trice'. (As in I will just slip an entry in, in a trice - only to be confronted with zillions of vast essays)