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

A military tent is a 'barraca' or something similar in French/Spanish/Italian. I would have thought also that the verb, as in unruly crowd was from the same root, but it says here its from the French 'Borak'(sic). So, I'm thinking there must be an Anglo-saxon equivalent, I wonder what that could be?

I've spent the last two and a half days at a conference ("Research and practice in professional discourse", since you ask) and have just learnt a new word (pause for stunned reaction) Seemingly, if you don't manage to prove your hypothesis you "disconfirm" it. I'll have to wait and see if it pops up anywhere else before filing it as more than a nonce.
Anyone's allowed to make up new words Barkingest was my latest nonce. You all understood it, didn't you? and it counts as British English because said it!

This would be the use of the word "nonce" that doesn't mean a convicted sex offender then?
..and since you're back, what about the "bunk off" question then?

(Niz left some refreshments last night, but this morning I can tell you there's no sign of them.)

We may have to disconfirm barkingest until it appears in a dictionary somewhere.

I have been deputed, o wondrous , on behalf of the entire thread, to approach you on the matter, with caution and temerity, and with the greatest possible respect, and to advise that it is our collective opinion that, whilst we are sure that you were referring to a rather dismal town in Essex, there is a tenuous connection to matters canine, and, therefore, in the matter of acceptance, to put in succinctly, and in the manner of our American cousins: NO WAY!

I was laughing so hard that the guy from the next office came in to see what the matter was. Can't get one past you sharp lot.I shall obviously have to be more devious
Wearing my professional linguist's hat (delusions engendered by abovementioned conference - there's something about wearing a blue name tag round the neck that cuts off the circulation to the brain):
"for the nonce", meaning "for the time being/for this one occasion only" is certainly archaic,but "nonce-word" ,a word invented for a particular occasion, is academically respectable.
I think nonce as a paederast is a mispronunciation of "nance" for a homosexual
(naval usage?)

W, if canine references are to be frowned upon, perhaps you could revise it so it is, say, more feline or bovine:

Meowingest.

Mooingest.

Since bunks are narrow beds built into walls on ships, "bunk off" may also be naval,originally meaning slope off for an unauthorised rest.
On the other hand "do a bunk", meaning to run away doesn't seem possible from that. Nor from "bunker" - a container for storing fuel.In my youth (violin pause) people without coal cellars had coal bunkers, with the door on the top which made it difficult to get the coal out especially in the dark in the rain, or coal sheds, where the door was at the side and it was therefore difficult for the coalman to empty the coalsacks into it.

Bunkers are also fortified military installations. Usually underground and used for command and control or observation. Places used for storing ammunition are magazines - like Vouge perhaps? - and large misiles are housed in silos like grain.

Or Vogue even!

HTTP://www.dictionary.com gives the origin of "bunker" as:
Scots bonker, chest, perhaps of Scandinavian origin

Which is fine for coal bunker (of which our rented house has one despite the fact that it isn't a decade old) but does not help with "doing a bunk" nor "bunking off".

Ah, does your Scots derivation reveal a connection between bunking and bonking?

Sorry to lower the tone - again.

Actually the bunking (together)/ bonking explanation is quite plausible.
According to my French dictionary, the French word for bunker is....bunker. This means that either (a) the English word is derived from French or (b) the Academie Francais dropped a clanger on that word.

W - I thought your definition of bunk off very plausible, and it seems to cover doing a bunk too (with some stretching or sheering of definition) - you didn't seem to think it did, so why ?

There are also coal holes in the pavement so the coalman could shoot the coal straight into the cellar of a terraced house, without tramping through the hall.

There is a Coal Hole on the Strand in London too. Mighty fine pub serving real ale

Shooting. Heh. Shooting

Thanks for the vote of confidence.
Now we come to the question of "bunk up" which used to mean "give a helping hand to" as in 'He needed a bunk up to get on the horse', but now seems to be only sexual in that "Give us a bunk up" is no longer a polite request.
Dunx - I'd say the Ac Fran slept on that one - doesn't look like a French word, does it?

I'm beginning to think that doing a bunk might be rhyming slang...but for what?
The only phrase I know is "bunk bed" but I'd imagine there are some more nautical (and therefore naughty) ones too?

according to my home page, you've answered my last post. But when I got here you haven't. Gone down the plughole/coalhole/wormhole?
Bet it'll be there as a simulpost(that's a nonce that hasn't made the dictionaries yet)

bunk,clunk,dunk,funk,gunk.hunk.junk,lunk,monk,nunc(obsolete for uncle)
punk,sunk,Which do you suggest?