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

That seems to cover it Alji.
When TC asked "And is "jog" just onomatopaeic?" I couldn't "hear" a distinctive sound, but it did conjure up a picture .
So ... is there a word which is the visual equivalent of onomatopoeia?

Well ..yeah I guess it covers all the verbs. But as plaguey suggests it really does have a visual context as well. What about the nouns?

A jog is a dog-leg type bend in a line or course.

The term jog for horses comes from the manner in which the horses legs bend at that pace, compared to the leg action of a trot or gallop. It's a bend of the leg thingy. And a jog is as valid a noun as trot or gallop.

People who go for 'a jog' are exercising the hind legs.

What's your dictionary say for the noun forms, Alji? I'm sure the other half of the puzzle is there.

peace
jwf

I have never heard jog used in this way! My dictionary gives it as a variant of jag;
n.
A protruding or receding part in a surface or line.
An abrupt change in direction: a jog in the road.

intr.v. jogged, jog·ging, jogs
To turn sharply; veer: Here the boundary jogs south.

Alji

Plaguesville, onomatopoeia's visual counterpart is phanopoeia, although it isn't an exact equivalent and English isn't the ideal language for it, Larkin's (and others') efforts notwithstanding. If you want the full effect, try one of the Tang dynasty poets like Du Fu, Pi Re Xiu or Wang Wei

*stunned at the prospect of dogleg soup*

Yes jigs, jags and jogs are folk measurement of the obliqueness or obtuseness in 'abrupt angles' that go off in surprising and unexpected directions. If you followed the path of a drunk through freshly fallen snow (why would you?) you'd see jigs, jogs and jags.

*jogs off to find a jug, go on a jag and dance a jig*

A jig is a quirky dog-legged knees-up dance.

jwf

*jogs off to find a jug, go on a jag and dance a jig*

H'mm,

In that order, the last might be the most difficult to accomplish, JWF.

~JWF~

Your ancestors might have been familiar with "jag" and "jaggy" as "point, pointy or sharp".

Mycroft,

Thanks for "phanopoeia". How and where do you keep finding the "mot juste"? (Don't tell me if you make them up.)
Assuming I've understood correctly, I have already a scenario for its use, i.e. the next time my female colleagues make reference to the jogging activities of buxom ladies and consequent black eyes.

'jagged' for sure.
As in 'on the jagged rocks' kinda thing.

Now I come to think on it, I have heard 'jaggy' here in NS.
Some younger folks in the sophomoric baby-talk phase of lost virginity and other new beginnings. A spoonerism phase and reading of John Lennon's books usually follows. Eventually all words ending in 'y' are abandoned.


jwf -gittin down and gittin jiggy wit it-

I think we should capitalise the first letter only, go 'in' a Jag rather than 'on' it, and worry not at all about bends, curves and the like as we sink into the sumptuous leather seats, revelling in that most British English of cars.

Rightuar

The book I learnt to read with or from (at this distance the name escapes me, but it may have been the Royal Road) contained the following gem: "The pig sat in the gig. The gig went jig jog" I will leave you to imagine the wonderful illustration that accompanied it. Pig leaning back and waving in resplendent queen mother style. Should the moderators light upon this quote they may rest assured that it's well out of copyright,alas.

Oh, I must mention a fantastic kids book I came across recently: 'The three little wolves and the big bad pig'. It's hilarious - and only £2.99 in Waterstones at the moment. All the reviewers at Amazon give it 5 stars.

On jag and jaggy. Another West of Scotland phrase comes from the fact that a needle is pointy, and hence jaggy (in fact anything with barbs or sharp points can be considered jaggy, even barbed wit) is that, if you are to get an injection at the doctors, you are "going for your jags".

Jig-a-jig, jiggery-pokery and I'll be jiggered
I found this extract for jig-a-jig in Goodbye To All That by Robert Graves
On Arrival in France
But now we did a route-march or two through the French countryside and that was all, except for fatigues in Havre at the docks, helping the Army Service Corps unload stores from ships. The town was gay. As soon as we had arrived we were accosted by numerous little boys pimping for their sisters. 'I take you to my sister. 'She very nice. Very good jig-a-jig. Not much money. Very cheap. Very good. I take you now. Plenty champagne for me?' We were glad when we got orders to go up the line. But disgusted to find ourselves attached not to the Royal Welch Fusiliers, but to the Welsh Regiment.

Alji

But it stands to reason that once the next interesting topic is raised, correspondence will start again.

"It stands to reason."
That's a phrase I have used countless times, possibly inspired by an Archers' character during my childhood. I suppose we all know what it means but how did it come about? The more I consider it, the stranger the construction seems.

Any offers?

I'm pretty sure that "I'll be jiggered" is really a more polite way of saying "I'll be bu****ed".

Yes very quiet. So quiet I wandered like a cloud all weekend not knowing what was wrong with reality. Just now I realise that Brit Eng has slipped from my recent conversations. Thank you for the resuscitations.

Jiggered, as in I'll be, is 'tortured', as in the imagined hell to which one is also often self damned.

Well it stands to reason doesn't it?

The distinction between the Fusiliers and the Regiment is lost on me but it must be said in Graves' defense that he was reporting true events and not writing fiction. We must not therefore judge him harshly in spite of his gravity or his poetry.

And that must stands to reason too, wot!

Withstands, glimpsed only in rare usage of 'notwithstanding' these days, must certainly be the origins. The scientific method insisted that everything withstand reasonable examination. This mode of thinking is now permanently engrained in our culture in a most unreasonable way.

Me ? I don't stand reasonable examination!
We British (or in my case Yorkshire) are known for being reasonable/saying "be reasonable".Has anyone ever laid down the limits of reasonableness?