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

ta! Can't tink of anymore atm tho...

I can

Morris, Rock, Don, Rush, Pat, Job, Jasper and Ray.

Wow!

Can you help a hapless colonial out with definitions of the verbs Morris and Jasper, please.

:o)

To morris is to dance. The verb comes from the noun morris as in morris dancing. Incidentally, morris dancing is actually a corruption of a Dutch phrase for Moorish dancing, so hard as it is to believe there must be some vague similarity between the traditional English display of unco-ordination and a North African dance.

To jasper is to give something the speckled or marbled look of some kinds of the semi-precious stone jasper.

Thanks, Mycroft.

I thought the Morris answer was the case, but it's good to be reassured. The Jasper verb is new to me.

:o)

Moorish - could that refer to Moors - as in Marshes?

You could certainly form the word moorish to mean 'like a swamp', but it's usually moory.

I just thought that the Dutch might be more inclined to use a word about "swampy" given their geography...

Ford's name was based on a car, the Ford Prefect I believe, which was based on a name, Henry Ford, which was based on God knows what.

There are also a number of boys' names that are spelled and pronounced the same as nouns, but not based on them. Bill, Will(either the paper kind, or willpower), Bob, Jean(blue jeans)

Ford = a river crossing (noun) (i.e. a shallow point of a river), or to cross a river (verb)(i.e. where the river is shallow enough to cross..)

OH!

And Henry is a derivation of Harry - (or is it the other way around, yup it is!!!) and to Harry is to worry someone (def from Dictionary.com: 1. To disturb or distress by or as if by repeated attacks; harass. See Synonyms at harass.
2. To raid, as in war; sack or pillage.
)

Ah, and Henry is not a verb - but a noun (named after a famous henry - henry joseph) and means
The unit of inductance in which an induced electromotive force of one volt is produced when the current is varied at the rate of one ampere per second.