Posts by Robyn Gallagher
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The 1966 Encyclopaedia of New Zealand has a section on New Zealand speech, and has this to say on the pronunciation of -day:
Both in New Zealand and in Australia the names of the days, also holiday, and yesterday are given the full sound of -day instead of the standard English Mondi, etc. This is not a relic of traditional usage but a pedantic following of the spelling.
The whole section is quite an interesting read. My favourite part is when someone gets to have a moan about New Zealanders "incorrectly" pronouncing ate as 'ayt' rather than 'ett'. Chur.
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My folks, especially my dad, use the term "coon" to mean basically anyone who looks odd.
Ha! My mum would use 'honky' to mean agitated. Eg "Don't tell your father or he'll get honky about it."
This got me in trouble at school, with one of my friends assuming my mum was racist, but I'm not sure how that worked.
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Like your delicate embroidery and light-as-air sponges?
Meanwhile I wear size 11 shoes...
Crikey! More tea, vicar?
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I always feel inadequate when there is talk of rules of thumbs involve handspans and shoe size. I mean, if I was a guy, I wouldn't have much to brag about. :(
Just as well I'm a lady and have other things to brag about.
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Robyn, I love the way that the word "niggardly" eventually dissolves into nothing.
I wouldn't be surprised if its origin was some Viking going "Nnnnn!" to express his displeasure at a stoopid pal.
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Urban Dictionary is entertaining, but not a good place to look up the meaning of an actual word.
Definitions are reader submitted. There is room for moderation, but it lets you turn your in-jokes with mates into legitimate entries. Nightball, anyone?
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"Niggardly" comes from the Old English word "niggard", which means a miser, or a stingy person.
I looked it up in the Shorter Oxford Dictionary, and found this:
niggardly is the adverb form of niggard
niggard is a late Middle English word which comes from nigon
nigon is a Middle English word which comes from nig.
nig is a Middle English word, thought of be of Scandanavian origin.And, maybe I'm also too innocent, but how is "Rule of Thumb" sexist?
There's a tale that in the olden days of America, it was legal for a man to beat his wife with a stick, provided the stick was no wider than his thumb.
The Straight Dope, World Wide Words and Wikipedia say it ain't so.
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I just had a proper look at the Webstock speakers list. Derek Powazek and Heather Champ are going to be there! They are, like, my interweb idols from back in the day. I'm going to beg, borrow or steal a ticket to be there.
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No doubt you are already excited by the potential of the new Stellenbosch rules that may come in 2008 in which hands may not be allowed in the ruck and we will be able to revert to actual ‘rucking’ again.
This sounds obscene. I think I will have to have a cup of peppermint tea and calm down.
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The subject of alternative rugby commentary is a rather interesting one.
See, I've always been put off rugby by the munter culture. I'm driven crazy by news stories about rugby where all the people interviewed have the same, uh, sort of, way of talking, uh, probably, and, at the end of the day, uh, it drives me away from the sport.
But yet I'm still quite interested in rugby culture - it's a huge part of New Zealand and I'm a New Zealander.
When I was in Melbourne, I found a zine that some footy fans had made about Melbourne's Aussie Rules scene. It took a traditionally muntery culture and made it really cool - a remarkable feat. It made me wonder if such a thing was possible for rugby in Aotearoa. (Little did I know.)
So to discover there's this whole culture of rugby love that isn't centred around stripy shirts and jingoism is surprising and pleasing. This alternative rugby scene feels like it could be the 'in' for me to start giving a damn about the game.
(I still feel a little strange writing that, but we'll see how it goes.)