![]() ![]() on guard, for he might try to borrow a cigarette. It is also wise for the family to be on slag for Tommy might ask for a grout i.e. Ma and Pa, if they don’t want to drop a clanger, will also have to beeze up on their English with the following glossary: British soldiers, already notorious for their slang, are importing some post-war doubletalk that seems designed specifically to baffle civilians.Ī sample conversation in this latter-day Army English might go something like this: 17.-(CP)-A brand-new threat from Germany is reported to be causing some alarm in British households. ![]() newspapers published an article distributed by The Canadian Press (CP), apparently inspired by the British article that I have reproduced, and containing a few transcription errors for example, on Saturday 17 th November 1945, The Ottawa Journal (Ottawa, Ontario) published Army Slang Baffles Civilians: ![]() It’s Army English!ġ The noun jilty (also jeldi, jildy, and other variants) means haste-origin: Hindi jaldi, quickness. So be on stag when he comes home and asks for a snout. It is so easy for the innocent civilian to drop a clanger ( make a mistake) that this further page from the Army dictionary should be useful: So here’s your dictionary to interpret it when the boys come: That’s the way they talk in the Army now. It was overheard the other day among men with the British Forces in Germany. This phrase seems to have originated in British Army slang during or immediately after the Second World War the earliest instance that I have found is from Beeze Up Your English!, published in the Daily Herald (London) of Monday 10 th September 1945:įirst soldier (surveying his dinner plate): “Slingers and Gippo again!”įirst soldier: “Burma Road! What a shower!” The driver had to wait helpless, with nothing wrong with his engine, until a mate came to tow him away. They found that a heavy lorry had shed the whole of its propellor shaft in the road. So loud was it that they rushed to see what had happened. On Monday, workmen in Linden Square, Riverhead, were startled to hear a very loud clanging from the main roadway. This image is clear in an early instance of the phrase, used as the punning title of an article published in the Sevenoaks Chronicle, Westerham Courier and Kentish Advertiser (Sevenoaks, Kent) of Friday 7 th April 1950: with a loud resonant ringing sound, which underlines the conspicuous nature of the mistake. The noun clanger is used only in this phrase the image is of something dropping with a clang, i.e. It’s essential to know the widely used proverbs because they will let you speak more professionally and mature your language. posthaste (adv.) From a noun (1530s) meaning 'great speed,' usually said to be from 'post haste' instruction formerly written on letters (attested from 1530s), frompost (adv.) + haste (n.). This lesson will teach the most commonly used Urdu proverbs (Urdu Muhavare) with English translation. The British-English phrase to drop a clanger means to make an absurd or embarrassing blunder-cf. Idioms and proverbs are those phrases that don’t give literal meaning, but they point to a moral lesson. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |