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

*wonders who IS responsible for Munchkin's spelling*

Very often, I am happy just assuming that the alliteration is the cause for the softening of things like "devil" to "Dickens". Takes us back, for example, to the "Crumbs" and "Jumping Jehosovat" sort of expletive, which really sound as though a naughty schoolboy had started to say the real thing then seen the headmaster coming round the corner and changed it at the last minute.

I've just read quickly through the last 200 posts, after my holiday. Here are a few comments which will appear totally out of context, as you will all have forgotten what you were saying two weeks ago:

Creels - these are normally used in Ireland for carrying turf, which is not the same as English turf. It is a fuel made from dried blocks of peat.

POSH - I have often heard the story about Port Out, Starboard Home and have never believed it. It is too neat. I have seen many sites on the Internet which claim it is a complete myth.

A good way of remembering Port from Starboard is "There is red port left in the bottle". This tells you that port is left, and also that the port light is red, so you can remember for yourself that the starboard light is green.

Lights are lungs. Butchers used to sell lights as dog food in the old days when they did all the butchering in their shop. Nowadays, only the useful meat is sent to the butchers.

You're right - absolutely right.Entrails didn't ring the right bells at the time. (Any ideas on why your lungs would be called your lights)
I've been thinking about "footing the bill" which I think TC has explained very well. What about the paraphrases?
"It's my shout" presumably means "It's my turn to attract the bar person's attention"?
Hence "I'll shout you one"
But how does "I'll stand you one" derive? Also "It's on me"/"Have one on me" seem a bit odd ()

* refusing to be impressed by your industry* I'm getting into training for when the original 4000 return. Have we covered "backlog" TC?((

Lights meaning lungs dates back as far as the 12th century. It comes from light meaning not heavy, because lights are light in weight. (Butchers would notice these things. The rest of us would have no great feel for the weight of different parts of an animal).

Thank you for enlightening us!

Hey There is a particularly elegant and erudite exposition on "logjam" at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/F19585?thread=100569&post=908509#p908509 It is a wonderful piece and I heartily recommend a look at it. ;-)

I agree with each and every suggestion on Dickens but they all need to be seen together, with additional awareness of "odd's bodkin" a very bad cuss word a from long time ago.
Odd was the devil, and the phrase parodied holy expressions such as 'by the blood of Christ' or 'the body of Christ'. Odd's bodkin! - a double whammy cuss, not just summoning the devil but mocking the Lord's word as well.
The common word 'bodkin' meaning body, fell out of use, except as it somehow came to mean the devil, O Bodkin! - a residual of Odd's bodkin.
As TC suggests there was a 'softening' from bodkin - One version was 'bother' (Oh bother! Botheration!) - at about the same time Dickens was a household word. (Yes, he was a pop-culture superstar in his day!) So a sort of 'riming slang' gave us "What the Dickens" for "What in the name of Odd's bodkin?".

JWF
I am loathe to argue with anyone two sizes bigger than me especially when he has a better organised beard, but:

"odd's bodkin" a very bad cuss word a from long time ago.
Odd was the devil, and the phrase parodied holy expressions such as 'by the blood of Christ' or 'the body of Christ'. Odd's bodkin! - a double whammy cuss, not just summoning the devil but mocking the Lord's word as well.

Not quite so.
"Od" is a bowdlerisation of God.
Odsbodikins ..bodkins ..bodlikins & others is from "God's little body"
"Zounds" is from God's wounds (crucifixion)
There are others but I'm about to lose the isp.
Gadzooks = hooks (hands)

G'night Dick.

It's quiet out there ... too quiet! Someone do me a favour, please. Say something, anything, about my article which is in peer review: http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/F48874?thread=116361 Gnomon

I'm on my way *sounds the charge*

Red

Well it's a public holiday here - got all the time in the world for you, Gnomon.

To continue the list a couple of postings back - "Bloody", as has probably been said dozens of times before, is a corruption of "God's Blood". But someone said it was also derived from "By our Lady".

As we get this day off for it being Ascension Day, I shall refrain from using them as expletives, just delve into the etymology a bit.

I don't know about bloody coming from by our lady, but I do know that "blessing" comes from an Old English word "bletsian" related to blood, meaning to pour blood on something. This was an old way of blessing things in pre-Christian times.

In looking up "blood", I found the term "screaming bloody murder", which explains the term "screaming blue murder" that is reasonably well-known nowadays.

In Ireland, we have Ascension Thursday and Easter Sunday. In England, they appear to be known as Ascension Day and Easter Day. Is Ireland the odd one out or is England. What about America? Is it Easter Sunday or Easter Day? Is it Thanksgiving Thursday, Thanksgiving Day or just plain Thanksgiving?

Are Ascension Day and Corpus Christi public holidays in Ireland? (Regardless of what you call them)

No, they are not public holidays. The only public holidays tied to religious holidays here are Christmas Day, St Stephen's Day (26 Dec), St Patrick's Day (17 Mar) and Easter Monday (day after Easter Sunday). Good Friday, the Friday before Easter Sunday, is not an official public holiday but most places close including, horror of horrors, the pubs and off licences.

And here was me thinking that the Monday holiday was just "Random Monday in May, ah stuff it, I can't be arsed lets all go down the pub" day. And here its got a point to it. I live and learn

Which, come to think of it, is a stupid phrase. You can't die and learn now can you? Well not much beyond "That was stupid, erk!" anyway.

Munchkin, prevaricating as far from work as possible.

Oh and I'd call them Easter Sunday, Christmas Day etc. when talking of the actual days, with Easter or Christmas covering the multiple day period.

I think that the UK end-of-May holiday started out as the church holiday of Whit, which is linked to Easter, so it moved around every year. This became too much trouble so it was tied down. In the UK it became the last Monday in May, while in Ireland it became the first Monday in June.

Does anybody know the origin of "Whit"?

I would only use the day for Good Friday, Maundy Thursday. Perhaps the Irish being more religious would think of Easter as being a longer period, as Munchkin says, and would then feel the need to specify Easter Sunday.

And,come on, it's not that long ago that the May bank holiday coincided with Whitsun and was called Whitsun. FYI, Whitsun this year is 3 June. Or is there another holiday around then in the UK? And - we get 14 June off, too - Corpus Christi.

Come to think of it - I would say Whit Sunday and Whit Monday. But Pentecost. Perhaps it's a question of how it sounds.

How about Mother's Day - which started out as Mothering Sunday...