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

Given that one meaning of shower is "worthless person" (or worthless group of people), I am trying to decide whether to take umbrage at the idea that Plaguesville (or whomever else Nikki D was addressing) should be caught up in one. I think it unlikely, however, that anyone on this thread woiuld lose their dryness.()

Given that humour (especially in this hallowed place) can be dry, is the term wet applied to houmour (or even damp) ?

The use of shower applied to person or persons unknown (well, I'm not volunteering just yet), always suggests to me some element of comic ridiculousness (parade ground sargeant-major shouts "Get fell in, you 'orrible shower").

Being a resident of the UK, water permeates much of every day life (especially over the last 12 months). I've just started wondering if, like light & heavy, wet and dry are a pair where one has more qualifiers than the other ?
In fact, should they have qualifiers at all ? If something was dry and it gets water on it, then its wet - no in-betweens - either wet or dry.

And just to make that clear, dry white wine is ... erm ...

No, I'm out of my depth.

Anyone see "people like us"?

Just one small example of the (sort of) double entendre:
She: "D'you know I lost my virginity to a Barry White Record?"
He: "Really? Which one?"
She "Don't be silly - you only have one."

got me thinking about foots again...

To foot the bill must be a 'football' thing. To kick it into touch or out of touch or out of the park or whatever, to be rid of it, give it the boot, ..but then there's the notion 'standing' (a bit out of fashion nowadays perhaps) where a gentlemn might 'stand' a poorer man to a meal or a drink or some other treat and bear the expense, ie: foot the bill?

Wrong foot/right foot are probably just obvious plays on words.

Put your foot in it dates from a time of horse drawn vehicles, meaning of course manure - but holds up today as to 'accelarate and speed' in motorised transport. So does 'put your foot down' but that used to mean 'stamp' your foot as a mother or teacher might do in exaspiration to gain the attention of children.

Que? Jwf....

I understand the put your Foot in it/Manure ref to Football... But Kick into Touch - isn't that a Rugbyism?

Also how does put your foot in it relate to increasing speed?

Not a footie/rugger/rugby fan at all - maybe it's cricket - the zone beyond the playing field, 'outa the park' as baseball fans would say, is what I was thinking. The point being that the ball (or the bill in the case of footing the bill) would be kicked out of play, out of thw way, uptight and 'outa sight', gonzo... ..toasted ..history.

The accelerator or gas pedal is foot operated. To put-your-foot-in- it is to put the pedal to the metal, walk 'er down, floor it, stomp on it, leadfoot it, boot it. Zoom-zoom.

One of the benefits of being famous in the Theatre is that "he who heads the bill never foots the bill".

All this footing the bill, makes me wonder if the person who stumped up was legless.

I seem to remember however, that stumping up is a vey old phrase from when the tax collectors visted each village and a tree stump would be used as the table at which the payments were made.

jwf

I'd describe it as putting your foot (or boot) down rather than in, when using it in your car context.

Yes, well, I can see you've never raced anything with a rusty firewall.

I would have thought that footing the bill simply meant you signed at the bottom, thus approving it for payment.

TC's definition sounds the most plausible.

We've probably covered this before, but why have I got two feet instead of two foots ?

Feet as plural is a left-over from Old English, where plurals were formed by various means, including changing the vowel sound (man/men) and adding endings such as -en. The present rule of adding -s for plurals came later, but the old endings survived in words for things people encountered everyday such as foot, man, child, mouse and louse.

This may have been covered before, but as I haven't read the backlog, you'll have to forgive me ...

Who does the Bob, in "Bob's your uncle" refer to?

In German, all plurals are irregular. Well, sometimes it seems like that. So those few in English are peanuts really.

Bob was Robert, Lord Salisbury, who appointed his nephew, Balfour, as Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1887.

Another use of a name in an expression has just occured to me, and of course I have no idea where it came from ... "Dickens" ... as in "Where the Dickens does this expression come from ?"

"What the Dickens?" popular Victorian phrase as used by evil capatilist mill owners to point at something unpleasant.
Dickens; popular Victorian author who used to reveal the horrible lives of those squashed underfoot by the evil, capatilist mill owners, (as well as inventing ludicrously wonderful names) which I'm sure they considered to be unpleasant to them. Might it have come about that way?

Munchkin, who takes no responsibility whatsoever for the spelling in this post

What the Dickens is a euphemism for "What the devil". It dates from a long time before Charles Dickens (1598).

Hello happy Britishers. Me again. May I extend an invitation to you all, should you wish, or have time for, a diversion from your scholarly pursuits here, to a place where your imagination can run riot, where all is well with the world, and where brave men and women may cavort and play in peace and sunshine. Welcome to Camelot. http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A564022