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

Deliberate error. See current title of thread and read a little blog. Or must this expatriot ex-plane further?

Not for one minute did I suspect anything else, rather I went b'l*g diving in search of a clue but returned empty handed

Perhaps my comment might be a clue.

Deft double whammy there, , as many people make that mistake about expatriot and wouldn't notice. A perk of the job, I assume?

Having just seen someone posting the phrase 'up most' when they meant utmost, I thought I'd go for a trawl as the 'ut' bit intrigued me. I discover that the whole word comes, almost unchanged, from OE (utmest or something) where 'ut' was 'out'. This seems to make sense, but then I thought, what of 'utter'? I guess this must be 'outer' which makes sense for 'utter dismay' or something, but not for an 'utterance'. Any others? Or idea on how utterance came about?

utter (adj.) - "complete, total," O.E. utera, uterra, "outer,"
comparative adj. formed from ut (see out), from P.Gmc.
*utizon. Uttermost is 14c.; utterly (M.E.) originally meant
"sincerely, outspokenly."
utter (v.) - "speak, say," 14c., in part from M.L.G. utern
"to turn out, show, speak," from uter "outer," comparative
adj. formed from ut "out;" in part from M.E. outen "to
disclose," from O.E. utan "to put out," from ut (see out).
Utterance is 14c.


from the Online Etymological Dictionary http://www.etymonline.com/u1etym.htm

By coincidence I have recently been utterly humbled.
IE: out beyond humbled to the very outskirts of humiliated.

I have been called to task (privately, elsewhere) for "twitting" anhaga in this thread.

Now it's true I have generally been behaving very boorishly and ham-fistedly since this damn wore-on-a-rock thingy started and I offer my humblest jalopies for my inability to control my ranker, here and elsewhere over these past few weeks.

That said (and doubted by many I'm sure) may I inquire about 'twitting' please?

I am familiar with a four letter noun 'twit' but any connection with that was far from my intention as I seldom 'name-call' and never a fellow Canuck. There are too few of us to waste.

"Twitter" and 'twittering' I associate with small noisy birds; again not my intention to associate myself or anhaga with any feathered spring choirs. So I needs to ask, if I am guilty of 'twitting' anhaga, what exactly have I done?

If it suggests that I have called him a 'twit' then that is simply not true. My point was to inform and assure anhaga that his ongoing but here-to-fore unconfirmed suspicions about the D-liberated smelling pistakes by some of the folks round here are quite core erect. I was offering confirmation and affirmation; twitting was and still is beyond my ken.

I know how difficult it must be, for someone as academically cloistered as anhaga appears to be, to imagine intelligent life and humour beyond those ivory towers rising as they do above a thousand miles of prairie flatland full of drunken cowboys and oi-riggers in six-month sub-zero blizzards of Western Can-ahda. And yet, here we all are, in loving culler, the hootoos of h2g2 from Hong Kong to Hamburg to Halifax and Hamilton. (Every 'haitch' there is as exaspirated as I am pretending to be )

peace
jwf

Hey, I didn't call you to task, did I, jwf? I was a bit of a twit about that spelling mistake (although jwf didn't call me one [neither a twit nor a spelling mistake]). I took no offence, believe me. After all, jwf was just trying to control his "ranker" (I assume that is a statement of his understanding that I out-rank him)


BTW:

twit (v.) - O.E. ætwitan "to blame, reproach," from æt "at"
+ witan "to blame," from P.Gmc. *witanan. The noun
meaning "foolish, stupid and ineffectual person" is first
attested 1934 in British slang, popular 1950s-60s, crossed
over to U.S. with British sitcoms. It probably developed
from the verb sense of "reproach" but may be influenced by
nitwit.

everybody bookmark the Online Etymological Dictionary and wrap up this thread, already.

>> "ranker" (I assume that is a statement of his understanding that I out-rank him) <<

By George I think he's getting it!

And if I may add, anhaga does outranker me in more than just education, sophistication and annual income. I'm sure, he probably smells a lot better too.

>> ..rybody bookmark the Online Etymological Dictionary and wrap up this thread, already. <<

Oo-oh.. for a minute there I thought maybe he wasn't 'getting it' after all. But I now perceive a possible irony indicated by his use of the biggrin smiley.

To answer your more direct question anhaga, I was actually reprimanded by one of the other regulars here via e-mail. And quite deservedly so, if as I suspect the subtler aspects of my charcoal wit are being lost in grey scaled haze of gunsmoke now circling this fine globe on the tradewinds.


~jwf~ always approachable, always reproachable

I think the subtler asspects of your wit are far from being lost, however much some might wish that they be so. I must say, I could never praise your wit too highly.

Ah, mea culpa, anhaga,

Despite jwf's Uriah Heep persona here, he is, in fact, a very substantial (!) "suit" in another existence where he graciously allows me to call him "Sir". It was on this other (yahoo) site that he deflated (not literally) my heroes, to wit the Teletubbies. His erudite deconstruction of the TTs seemed to be at variance with his cheery "sassoon" reproach. Hurt by the slur on the TTs, I pointed out this humour deficit using the verb "twit", on the basis that if I know the meaning then everyone else must.
I am not convinced that jwf was unaware of the word; I fancy that he may have wanted to see me squirm. So I'm squirming.
I am, Sirs, your obedient servant .... Please don't hit me.


Thought for the day:
"Squiggle" combination of squirm and wriggle?

Am I really going to do this?

"squiggle - 1804, probably a blend of squirm and wriggle. The noun is first
recorded 1902, from the verb. "

same place.

What service!
First used this evening at four minutes past six, and already a noun by two minutes past seven!
Wow.

I'm really a twit some times. It took me at least ten seconds and three read-throughs before I laughed.

I have liked the word "twit" ever since I heard it on the Goon Show back in the 50s. I regard it as friendly.
I regret to say that my wife and daughter would agree with your describing yourself as a twit. Not for any slowness in seeing the obscure attempt at humour, but for reading it in the first place.
Hey ho. time for

actually, I did think it was very funny.

I take it everyone knows how to spell 'expatriot' then?

Don't bring up the war!

Not an ex...

... just pining for the fjords

"Pining for the fjooorrds? What kind of talk is that?....."


I take it everyone knows how to spell 'expatriate' then?