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

Great link from cl zoomer!

I'd never heard of a:

>> pantisocracy - "ideal Utopian community in which all have equal rights," 1794, lit. "equal rule of all," from Gk. pant-, comb. form of pantos, gen. of pan "all" + isocratia "equality of power." <<

But perhaps the idea of 'pants' is not from Saintly tights and comic
actors, perhaps it has something to do with:

>> pant (v.) - c.1440, perhaps a shortening of O.Fr. pantaisier "to be out of breath" (12c.), probably from V.L. *pantasiare "be oppressed with a nightmare, struggle for breathing during a nightmare," lit. "to have visions," from Gk. phantasioun "have or form images, subject to hallucinations," from phantasia "appearance, image, fantasy" (see phantasm). The noun is attested from c.1500. <<

But of course I'm so unfamiliar with how the word is actually used in British English. It's one of those things nice people don't say online at h2g2 so I never really see it (hear it?) in context.
Could it means "that's weird" or "that's creepy" or "gross!"? Or is it simply dismissive?
peace
~jwf~

>> "Well that’s one way to lose
these walking blues.."
= And I don't think anything from there on makes any sense! <<

This is mildly comforting to know. If the best minds at h2g2 (the BritEng Brigade) can't figure it out, then perhaps it never did make sense.

I have to confess it had never really bothered me personally before. But when someone asked the question in ASKH2G2 and it never got resolved; that bothered me. At least we tried.



"Sounds of Silence" and a few lines from a few other tunes mark the only reason god ever favoured Paul Simon. And he will still have to answer for:

"I am a rock.
I am an island.
And a rock feels no pain
And an island nev - er cries."

Me and John Donne went for a spin on that one I tell ya!


~jwf~

Thanks for the compliment. Sometimes the things off the top of my head are the best.

The English use "pants" to mean

- what a dog does when it's hot
- something that is annoying, a nuisance, no good.

Only rarely does it apply to undergarments, that would more often be "underpants" or "panties". Unless you prefer "knickers". Which is also a mild exclamation of exasperation.

I hope I have covered everything. Which is what pants should do.

Oh - and "Have you got ants in your pants?" - which is self-explanatory.

In fact, "Ants in your pants" could, from the sound of it, be a Paul Simon song.

"She's got ants in her pants,
Diamonds in the pits of her arms . . ."

>> ..something that is annoying, a nuisance, no good. <<

But not breath-stoppingly so?

Is it safe then, to rule out the possibility that something described as 'pants' might be imagined to cause manic hyperventilation? You know how kids tend to exaggerate, especially when given the chance to pass judgement, most especially in their harsher negative judgements.

eg:
"Oo-oo gross!"
"That's creeping me out!"
"Gag me with a spoon!"

The third example does suggest that loss of breath control is a conscious factor in their assessments and it would be easy to see a connection between gagging and panting.


~jwf~

But if you're gagging for summat it means you really want it. ()

If in the UK you heard a mother shout, "Don't forget to put your pants in the dirty linen bin!" I think most children would look for their dirty underwear, wouldn't they?

Yup. (Well mine would at any rate)

I wonder about this every time I pass Kirtlebridge.

kir·tle ( P ) Pronunciation Key (kûrtl)
n. Archaic
A man's knee-length tunic or coat.
A woman's dress or skirt.

[Middle English kirtel, from Old English cyrtel, probably ultimately from Latin curtus, short. See sker-1 in Indo-European Roots.]

kirtle

\Kir"tle\, n. [OE. kirtel, curtel, AS. cyrtel; skin to Icel. kyrtill, Sw. kjortel, Dan. kiortel, kiole.] A garment varying in form and use at different times, and worn doth by men and women.

Wearing her Norman car, and her kirtle of blue. --Longfellow.

Note: The term is still retained in the provinces, in the sense of `` an outer petticoat.'' --Halliwell.



I always feel skirt must be related to kirtle. That makes me wonder about kilts. Was there ever perchance a garment called a skilt?

Can't help on the kilts. But "Kirtle" sounds suspiciously like "girdle" which is a belt. Except when it's something you cook on.

I'm getting really confused now. Still, I expect Geri Halliwell knows all about provincial outer garments, so that's OK.

Oh, and the German word for a sort of working jacket is a "Kittel" which is also like a lab coat or a caretaker's coat, i.e. a bit longer, but my guts tell me that this is not related to the "kurtle/curtel" word.

Kirtle. Also kittle.

As in the Jacobite lampoon of George I "Were thee at the place called the kittle hoosie?"

You can probably work out for yourselves what sort of establishment they had in mind.

Noggin

And I think you cook on a griddle rather than a girdle. Normally.

Noggin

I shall refrain from making any comment about girdles being worn by girls who are hot stuff and direct your attention to:
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=27027

Jacobite Songs and Ballads, ed. G.S. MacQuoid (date unknown):

"THIS IS NO MY AIN HOUSE
.....

W' routh o' kin and routh o' reek,
My daddy's door it wadna steek;
But bread and cheese were his door cheek,
And girdle cakes the riggin o't."

Obviously, I cannot understand a word of it but there it is.

>which is also like a lab coat or a caretaker's coat<
I think in England these were known as 'cow gowns,' the brown ones that is. Is this term still used? I haven't heard it since I was a teenager.

A new topic. (Carry on talking about skirts, shirts, kilts, kirtle and girdles, but consider this new topic as well).

I've identified a difference between the way Americans use the word "suburb" and the way I use it. I assume that I use it in the British English way, but I'd like to confirm this.

The American Usage:

"In America, a suburb is a smaller town on the outskirts of a city. It has its own government structure, usually has it's own schools, etc."

So the suburb is separate from the city.

My Usage (which I hope is correct British usage):

"A suburb is a part of large city which is outside the centre. It may have a centre, with shops etc. or it may not."

Thoughts?

Was it Napolean that described Britain as a nation of shopkeepers? In London there are shops everywhere, I can't think of one postal-code area that doesn't have at least one parade of shops and the schools are pretty thick on the ground too

However, calling these places 'suburbs' doesn't sound right to my ear - Camden is a 'town' (with its own Town Hall) governing Highgate 'village' and beyond

I agree. In fact, I can't think of any place in England that could be called a suburb. Huge Victorian agglomerations are just that:- villages stuck together.

well, to my mind a suburb is usually an area on the outskirts (eek, topic confusion!) of a town. They seem to be mainly residential. They may have some shops and so forth, and may well be the results of a village that is in the process of being swallowed by the growing town (ie where development of the town has grown to encompass the village). Tend to be commuter belts in my mind.

What I think of when I think of a suburb are those big housing developments (or residential villages) you get on the edge of towns. Neither one thing ( a seperate village) nor another (part of the town proper).
My take on this is probably from my understanding that suburb is sub-urban, and is therefore, in a somewhat inaccurate forming, half town and half country.

Suburb: where the majority of middle class, middle england wash their cars on a sunday, walk the dog in the morning and desperately play keeping up with the Joneses.

For example?
So you don't reckon there are any upper or lower class suburbs?
(As a Jones, I'm interested in the ways in which the rest of you are playing keepy-uppy)