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

"ish" is not an English word, it is an English suffix, that is, a word ending. It has a long history, dating back to Anglo Saxon and before. It can be found in such words as "English" meaning "like or pertaining to the Angles". "11ish" is just "elevenish" which is a perfectly acceptable English word meaning around about 11 o'clock.

I've also never heard of "to famish", although I am familiar with "famished". It's another example of those words where the verb dies out but the adjective lives on. "Parched" is another appropriate example.

Hmm, well I'm peckish right now, but before I disappear to satisfy my every desire, just thought I'd mention some cockney rhyming slang I heard recently from a young man from Bethnal Green: "Bubble bath" = "laugh". Ouch!

That is soo beautiful. A shop sign saying "we open elevenish".

I am writing up my obligatory "What I did on my holidays" - i.e. an entry on Menorca. The language there is Catalan, which is interesting enough in itself, but I noticed that while the French say 'plage', the Italians 'spiaggia', the Catalans 'platxa' and the Spaniards 'playa', the English say "beach". Where does that come from?

PS the German is "Strand" which is also reasonable.

*remembering the kemb and comb of a few days back*
So a German beachcomber would be a Strandenkember?
peace
~jwf~

PS
..and could you really say you were 'stranded' on a desert island if it had no beach?

'Stranded' is "gestradet" in German. But the Beachcomber is difficult, because I was never sure what a beachcomber was. For some reason I think of Spike Milligan when I hear it.

sorry, typo. "gestrandet"

Beach comes from the south-east of England and originally meant pebbles or shingle. There's an Old English word bece (now beck) meaning stream which may concievably be the same: beach was initially used more in reference to pebbled stream beds than the coast, but the usage gradually changed, presumably because the south-east's coast is almost exclusively pebbled.

There is (as usual) a verb come out of the noun beach.
It means to 'land' or come-up-on-the-shore from the water.
And I will quote one of my own little poems to demonstrate its use.
It's called 'Woooosh'.
The seahorse and the hummingbird
could simply not agree
was that the sound
of a whale breathing
or beaching waves from a gentle sea.

peace
~jwf~(the poem fails because not everyone sees seahorses hovering in the sea as being like hummingbirds in the air - sigh - worse, I later wrote a second verse with a submarine and helicopter (same hovering-in-their-medium dealy) in an effort to 'explain' the image, but...)

It could have been the sound of a whale beaching...

Ah yes ..the sub ..text.

~jwf~

... and this may or may not be the right place for it - but what exactly is the difrerence between a quiche and a flan?

The word strand originally meant the shore, so it could have rocks instead of sand and shingle. This means you could be stranded on a desert island with no sand.

I presume "desert island" comes from deserted rather from "hot, dry and full of sand, camels and oases".

A quiche is a type of flan. A quiche is an unsweetened open-topped custard pie with a savoury filling. A flan is any sort of open-topped pie, which could have either savoury or sweet filling.

Beachcomber has two meanings: someone who makes a living by searching the beach for washed-up goods; a white person living as a loafer in the South Pacific.

Gnomon, are you teasing me? - or is there some wholly different style of quiche in Ireland. I have never, ever seen a quiche with custard. Yuk!

Or are we using the word 'custard' for different substances?

I think the quiches here in Ireland are the same as anywhere else. It is my use of the word custard that is questionable. You're probably thinking of the yellow stuff that you pour over Christmas Pudding. I was thinking of the more general term for "a pudding-like mixture made with eggs and milk".

So a baked custard is technically a quiche then?

Hang on, you all are confusing me. Now, egg custard tarts I am familiar with - what else would you do with your nutmeg.

But custard is a sweet substance, made for smothering desserts or padding out trifles.

Not savory flans.

I don't hink that Custard is necessarily sweet.... Its just a term for an "egg based sauce" If I'm remembereing Nigella correctly...

I don't hink that Custard is necessarily sweet.... Its just a term for an "egg based sauce" If I'm remembereing Nigella correctly...

And the word probly comes from French....