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

I have to say I'm in two minds here: on the one hand, I can see the benefits of a page dedicated to British English, with a variety of discussions and links; on the other hand, this thread and its long lost predecessor have remained vibrant, not least because of the location here at Ask the Community, which makes it more likely that newcomers may visit, assuming they are not daunted by its size.

Speaking of which, we'll be hitting 5000 at the bottom of this page!

So, being lazy and not looking it up myself, what does Ave Maria mean, if nothing to do with greetings or small ice balls. Is it a sort of Long Live Mary! or Vive le Quebec! sort of thing?

I don't see the problem. "Hail" isn't really a casual greeting like "wotcher", it is more of a formal salutation (hence "Hail to the Chief"). So, Hail Mary is a sort of "we respectfully salute you".

In some ways, I'm surprised someone hasn't asked about the rest of the prayer, because the phrase "full or grace" is very technical in a catechismy (!!) sort of way..


Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc, et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.

(Mod, this really, really translates as "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and in the hour of our death. Amen.").

Is there any link between verge, verging and verger?
I'm sure I could lookthis up myself but you get so much more information when asking these questions here!
There seems to be a common theme of 'edge' between verge and verging but that doesn;t seem to account for verger (perhaps a religeous person who's on the endge ).

Oh, and is verge as in the bit of grass at the side of the road just UK or is it universal english?

Anybody hail a cab yet?

I have to agree with Kaeori about the vibrations inherent in this thread. Perhaps it's only a sense of 'guilt' that makes me campaign for a Brit Eng Forum or User Page. If multiple threads were available to this group, then silly folks like me and six7s and Spiff and plaguesville, wouldn't always be getting in the way and interupting the more serious discussions with all our 'fun' and 'folly'.


As for having been quoted out of context by the aforementioned silly six7s, who somehow found my first and only 'Journal' entry (from my very first day here at h2g2), let me set the record straight by adding from my current and oft revised homepage:
U162344


You can forget all that e=mc2 nonsense.
Chemistry equations are equally meaningless and irrelevant.
Who cares if action = reaction.
And you can safely ignore the 'I think' = 'I am' crowd.
Just remember that truth = beauty = truth.
That's all you ever need to know.
Ever.
Really.

And always remember:

If you tell people what they want to hear, you will be popular.
And if you tell people what they need to know, you will be respected.
But if you will listen to what people say, you will be loved.

However, if you merely pretend to listen to people and then tell them only what they think they want to hear, you will be just another politician.



Luv ya, six7s. Thanks for listening.


~jwf~

Ictoan, you've invented a fine new word there! something that is neither 'end' nor 'edge' - 'You wanna watch that ~jwf~, he's right on the endge!'

btw, since you're keen on bonus info, the French find 'Soft verges' signs in the Uk hilarious - 'verge' is the medical term for 'penis' in French!

Of course, I'm *much* too sensible to find that remotely amusing...



seeya
spiff

A verge was also a penis in English too, (nowadays it still is, but only in entomological circles) the root of which is the Latin virga meaning rod or strip of land. In the case of the verger, the association is based on the verger's rod of office, and the sense of edge is an application of a similar metonymic principle whereby the rod of the Lord High Steward (or some other appropriately puissant individual - I forget the exact title) was linked to the jurisdictional boundaries of his office. The sloping sense of verge is wholly distinct and comes from the Latin vergere meaning to bend.

Two days having passed and no one else has asked so...

If, as Mycroft says, "A verge was also a penis in English too, ...the root of which is the Latin virga ...", what does this tell us about virgins? Is virginity an absence of virges? Is a virgin what a virge goes in? It seems contradictory that if the virge is in then there's no virgin.


~jwf~

As I recall, the etymology of virgin is unclear beyond the Latin virgo, but it could be related to virga as that can also mean the fresh shoot of a tree or plant. Coincidentally, I'm sure, a collection of virgas constitutes a virgetum which is a bush.

One of the few things I remember from far distant schooldays:
"vagina" (pronounced "waggeena" - obviously) means "sheath" like what a soldier kept his sword in when not using it for its intended purpose.

The American author Kurt Vonnegut once reviewed a new dictionary by looking up all the "rude" words in it. He reasoned that it showed how up-to-date the dictionary was, how prepared it was to list all words (there was a time when dictionaries would not include such words) and that these were the words that most people would look up first anyway.

While blinding us with science above, Mycroft gives two origins for the word "verge" for a grassy bit at the side of the road.

On the one hand, he says, it is a strip of land and comes from the word "virga" and, on the other hand, it slopes and comes from the word "vergere". So that means that we can call it a "verge" either way and just have to think a different meaning to it.

And would that mean that "verging towards insanity" meant sloping towards or is it, as I had always assumed, "on the edge of insanity" and does it matter?

And I wouldn't be surprised if vergers got their designation from the less churchified interpretation of all those related words there.

Perhaps they looked after the vestal virgins.

And as for the Latin for "double entendre" I have no idea, but I would be interested in the etymology of "innuendo". Which was a superb song by Queen which I shall now find myself humming all day. Wasn't that the one with the flamenco bit in the Middle?

I'm not sure the Romans bothered much with double entendre, anyway, they just came right out and said it like it was - they didn't have any inhibitions.

Innuendo was originally a Latin word meaning 'by hinting'. It comes from 'in' added to 'nuere' meaning 'to nod', so it means 'said with a nod', which presumably is the Latin equivalent of the modern .

MMMMCMXCIV

MMMMCMXCV

MMMMCMXCVI

MMMMCMXCVII

MMMMCMXCVIII

MMMMCMXCIX

.........

viVII's

First use documented in an original play by an unknown author called 'Montius Pythonus'.

I think one interesting question is "what is the French for double entendre?" Or did we cover that somewhere? We need an index!!

I believe that Spiff answered that one. It was, as you say, a bit ago.

I see we're on the verge of 5000 or MMMMM?

*pauses - waits to post...*


~jwf~

I want it. I've just spent hours wandering through the backlog to my last posting and I was the first on this sequel. So, either me or K
(What have the kiddies been doing to you jwf in my absence?)

The Vestal Virgins were chosen out by ballot from girls aged between six and ten, and served for 30 years, after which they were free to marry, though few did. Any who lost their virginity while in service were buried alive. Did they have regular checkups, one wonders?