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

On a completely different subject, what about 'clement' as in weather?
All I can find is that apparently its from the 15thCentury and derives from the Latin 'clement-, clemens' which doesn't mean an awful lot to me!

= mild

Does cement have a simlar derivation?

ADJECTIVE: 1. Inclined to be lenient or merciful. 2. Mild: clement weather.

bung it into google, along with 'weather'

Charlies = breasts, a proper Charlie is a right idiot, Charlie's dead means your petticoat's showing... I'm fishing for another usage which might be Lincolnshire only (wolds, not fens in our case and then by adoption)

Star,
Indeed I do Same thing about Lincolnshire being flat, not the bicycle ride I used to have to town it wasn't! And Steep Hill certainly isn't! As for the Fens, I believe there is a Fens dialect which still has a large number of Danish words (whatever the invading Danes spoke) straight from their invading ancestors, ie it's more like danish with english words in it than vice versa. Seem to remember some program on it.

On the Clements thing, are the above posts with reference to the Latin derivation, ie the 'clement-, clemens' bit I posted? I am, of course, aware that clement weather is fair/mild weather. So is it that simple? That the Latin also means mild/fair with the same usage and english just borrowed it wholesale? Seems strange it has come down to us, meaning unchange, if so!

Clement in Latin means forgiving.

Gnomon has an article on Old English in Peer Review http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/classic/F48874?thread=165056&skip=0&show=20 but has been too modest to mention it here (I think?)

Thanks, Potholer, for pointing that out, and for that link. If you are an "alabastered" like me, you may prefer this link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/F48874?thread=165056&skip=0&show=20

Gnomon may be modest to a fault but he obviously has good taste in skins.

As for proving 'cor', I cannot, except to say the head of English at my UNI was an aetheist from Cambridge and my UNI was run by Jesuits.
The result of my education is a passion for Truth and the inability to prove it.

peace
jwf - still ROFLing about the family tree represented by a straight line down the mdidle of the page - gadzooks , just when I think I've heard it all .

Oranges and lemons said the bells of St Clements - What I remember anyway.
F48874?thread=165056&skip=0&show=20
should just link to the thread without messing up your skin. Perhaps you should see a doctor if you have skin problems.

And the other thing was that Mild is just a form of beer

Unfortunately for everyone I meet who's name is Charlie .... I have this little 'tape' that plays in my head from a Good Show ....

"Good bye Charlie"
"But my name's Neddy!"
"Yes, but I've always thought of you as Charlie!"

I also have unfortunate preconceptions about people called Brian, Simon, and of course Kevin !

Sorry folks .... not very PC

There was a Radio 4 'PM' presenter called Charlie. She took great exception to someone using the phrase "I felt like a right Charlie".

Gnomon no doubt has great taste in his choice of skins, but dare I suggest his taste would be even greater were he to prefer Classic.

A more recent use of the word "Charlie" to describe anyone with a high voice derives from Charlie Mouse, the squeakiest of the mice on the marvelous mechanical mouse organ (Bagpuss).

Does Prince Charles have any responsibility for some of the less than complimentary uses of the name Charlie?

charlie horse?

Charlie is a foolish person according to Cambridge online. No origins are offered anywhere I've looked but I wonder about Charles I and Charles the Two. Possibly also Charlie Chaplin, a legitimate British actor who gained fame and fortune in American films as a clown, buffoon, fool... and while he was eventually Knighted, he was long considered a foolish man by Brits.

Charley horse (spelled that way) is an Americanism with its origins in the great game of baseball. Most souces list the origins as obscure and no one knows for sure who Charley was or why his horse was lame. However, Mencken suggests two theories predominate:
One is Charlie "Duke" Esper, <quote> a southpaw pitcher who "walked like a lame horse." Esper, however, did not make his major league debut until 1890, so while it is possible that the term derives from him, the dates make it seem unlikely as it has been found in print from 1888.
The second is that it comes from a lame horse owned by Charley, the groundskeeper in a Sioux City ballpark. Mencken gives no dates for this one.

A google search of 'charlie horse' (spelled that way) took me to someone's fond rememberances of a massive helicopter raid on a Cambodian village in May of 1970 (C Troop was code named 'charlie horse'; as many army helicopter companies grew out of old cavalry regiments they use 'horsie' names.) It was a complete bullet-by-bullet mission debriefing (at two thousand rounds a minute it gets quite lengthy) and is complete with body counts and claims five 'enemy' vehicles and two dozen 'huts' destroyed.
peace

jwf

Speaking of the horses..
What about the term - darn I've only heard it and can't imagine how it's spelled - but it sounds like the girls' name Gigi.
Could be jeejeez or gee-gees. It's a Jack Duckworth phrase from Corrie Street.
(I love the way he says 'bookies' like it was 'boo - keys')
~j~

Ahh, for that J-dubya! My dear ol' Grandad was a great fan of 'the gee-gees'. He was a life-long patron of the bookies (booky's?) and in later years (when *I* was around) he used to make immensely complex (it seemed to me) bets involving 5 or 6 races over the course () of the afternoon. He would be betting about 5p (not much) for a possible win of something like fifteen pounds (not really that much either, but for a risk of 5p, pretty darn good!). Naturally, the more ambitious efforts rarely came off, but just occasionally he would be in top form and excitedly tell the unlikely tale of his latest victory on 'the nags'. He's not around anymore to liven up my life with his gee-gee antics, but I always feel good when I am reminded of him, so

On the BE thread front, one of the simpler bets is called a yankee, which I think involves predicting either two or three outcomes, but I'm sure there are quite a few very specific words for complex horse-racing bets. Any offers?

Seeya
Spiff

The only thing that springs from the top of my head would be monetary amounts, i.e. he's just bunged a monkey on the three o'clock at Kempton Park. No idea how much a monkey is mind. Or a pony for that matter.

Well, safer to bung on a pony than a monkey, despite what logic may suggest. Losing a pony would leave you 25 quid out of pocket, whereas the monkey would cost you 500 nicker!

Spiff