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

btw = between time warps????

I'm in a right pickle now. I can't find the references to back up my argument.

By the way,
shouldn't btw be btb = by the by?

Gubbins: Compact OED gives "Fragments especially of fish, fish parings. rarely singular (also gubbings variation of gobbon).
So there.

I took a day off (It was a public holiday here, guv, honest) and this forum moved on 35 posts - where did my bath go?
Sorry folks, flabbergasted (spelt thusly) is American. How about "banjaxed" (which I believe is Irish for the same effect)

gast my flabber, American! (You want an 'h' in there?)

Any chance for 'flummoxed'.

So, you are ignoring the politics of the 20th Century and claiming Ireland for Britain! A dangerous game my friend.

'Banjaxed' is Irish all right, but it means 'broken' or 'badly damaged', as in 'we'll have to take the stairs, the lift is banjaxed' or 'George W Bush's sudden conversion to communism completely banjaxed his presidential hopes'.

Sh*t, that's what comes of not checking the references. Having often heard "I'm banjaxed" I took it to mean "astounded" when I should've understood "knackered". Abject apologies (and a return to way up this thread somewhere)
Websters doesn't want an 'h' although it suggests a possible derivation from "aghast"
Their suggested synonyms are amaze, astonish, stagger, nonplus, confound, perplex, confuse and mystify
(Last time I looked at my passport a bit of Ireland was still British, our wishes notwithstanding.)

You haven't claimed flummoxed, tho I suspect it is International.

'Nous' as in common sense. Where does that come from (the word, not the sense)

btw please may I take this opportunity to have a minor rant.

Now we are clear about btw etc. can I protest about the incorporation into the spoken language of (presumably) internet abbreviations. I am frequently hearing people say 24/7 (with a pause for the /)meaning 'all the time' (I care for my Grandmother 24/7) or even 2/52 meaning a fortnight. This is not a good thing. It confuses the old folk.

I think that 24/7 was in use before the internet. And what young people say is designed to confuse old folk

You can of course protest all you like about internet abbreviations being included in spoken English. It won't do any good. All languages change through use. 24/7 is a good phrase because it is easier to say than "24 hours a day, 7 days a week" and is more specific than "all the time", which often just means "often".

What I object to are abbreviations that are just as hard to say as the original phrase, such as "OTT" or "WWW".

meaning "commonsense" is old. Would you accept a derivation from the contraction of "noos" (various accents needed there) which is the Greek for "mind"?

Flummoxed is not the same as flabbergasted. Flummoxed means bamboozled while flabbergasted means gobsmacked!

Is a gubbins the same as a gadget, widget, gizmo or thingummybob?

Certainly not, G, please pay attention! A gadget has a purpose, a widget is fictional, a gizmo does something and a thingummybob.... well I don't know, its sort of singular whereas a Gubbin(s) implies a big mess.

I guess if you had several thingummybobs and maybe a few whatchamacallits some of youknowthat then you'd have a good pile of gubbins

I think you approach a truth here Phil.

Now then, please can we have flibbertygibbet (spelling??) meaning a flighty young lady, and claim it for Britain?

I am not responding to wandrin's Irish response because it is not clear on which side of the border the star's sympathies lie. ('our') but, generally, I wouldn't have expected Irish (Gaelic origins) to fit into a British (Latin/Germanic) vocabulary.

wicky q for wicked cute.is this canadian or british?

Can I, as a serving Brit, reject 'wicky q' on the grounds that it is twee and pathetic and probably the invention of a diseased mind? Please?
Flibbertigibbet - a gossiping or frivolous or restless person. This word is also twee but, sadly, genuine.

This is outrageous Percy. 'Twee'. Never in my life, my long, convoluted and infinitely varied life, during which I have used the word 'flibbertigibbet' at least ten times (usually in reference to what were called secretaries and are now PAs - on the grounds that it is almost an insult, but cannot be understoos as it contains more than two syllables) have I been associated with the concept of "Twee". Anathema.

Although most Irish people would not accept that any part of Ireland is British, the English language as spoken in Ireland is certainly close enough to the language as spoken in Great Britain (that is, the island comprising England, Scotland and Wales) to allow Irish people to contribute to the debate.

British is a word that means different things to different people. The original Britons were a tribe of Celtic people. They occupied all of Great Britain as far north as Scotland's Glasgow and Edinburgh. North of this were a different lot of Celtic people called the Gaels(as well as some non-Celtic people called Picts). The Gaels also occupied all of Ireland.

The first meaning of British is "belonging to the island of Great Britain". By this definition, Welsh and Scots are British, while Irish, even loyalist Orangemen, are not. This is the normally accepted meaning in Ireland.

The second meaning is "belonging to the islands of Great Britain and Ireland". People who use the word in this way call these islands the "British Isles".

The third meaning of British is "English". While I can't any reason for using the word in this way, there are people who do. The Welsh are the only remnants of the original Brits left and should be proud to be called British, but they're not. A Welsh Nationalist friend of mine was highly insulted when I said he was British. THe Brits were the English as far as he was concerned.

I suppose a fourth meaning would be "belonging to the British Empire". Since the empire now includes the United Kingdom and one or two tiny islands dotted around the world, this meaning has now died out.

Finally, I'd like to point out the the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands both consider themselves to be British and part of the British Isles, although each is an independent country and not part of the United Kingdom.