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Terminology origins.

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  • Spitfire76
    Spitfire76 Posts: 1,136
    letthegoodtimesroll said:
    ShootersHillGuru said:
    Why wouldn’t  the dead on ships be buried at sea ? 
    Too many sailors drowned whilst digging the graves so they would often hide the body under a canvas or flag and tip it into the sea when they thought nobody was watching.

    This really made me laugh & reminded me of something I’d not thought about for years,
    when I was little & I heard the phrase buried at sea & the only reference I had of a burial was a scene in Scrooge & I presumed they done the same but at sea, think the football game scene in bedknobs & broomsticks helped my imagination along with how a sea burial would work & I believed this for far longer than I should have! 
  • Addickted
    Addickted Posts: 19,456
    MrOneLung said:
    Dave Rudd said:
    Interestingly, I looked up the word 'dictionary' in the Dictionary recently.

    Pretty much what I expected.
    why is there only one word for Thesaurus ?
    Why is there only one Monopolies Commission?
  • Cordoban Addick
    Cordoban Addick Posts: 5,448
    Not sure we were eating tomatoes in the 1500s.
  • AddicksAddict
    AddicksAddict Posts: 15,791
    Cordoban Addick said:
    Not sure we were eating tomatoes in the 1500s.
    I know I wasn’t. 
  • cafcfan
    cafcfan Posts: 11,198
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/ideas/videos/the-surprising-history-of-stealing-someones-thunde/p08g1krn
  • usetobunkin
    usetobunkin Posts: 2,184
    Henry Irving said:
    ShootersHillGuru said:
    A Ha Ha is a ditch that is obscured from a view. Often used in gardens of stately homes to prevent deer approaching the front of the house but not noticeably visible and spoiling the line of the view of the lawn.
    You've got it the wrong way round.

    Later a ditch was dug to keep out the locals and was called the Ha Ha ditch after Ha Ha Road

    The name was then used for other similar ditches and became a generic name. 
    The story behind Ha Ha Rd is that a Royal Artillery Officer had a wager with a fellow Officer, that he could build a 6ft wall less than a mile from  the Orderly office in the barracks and the second officer could not see it.

  • cafcfan
    cafcfan Posts: 11,198
    Pubs called The Chequers:  nothing to do with board games, despite what many of the pub signs would have you believe.

    Back in the day, pubs made their own beer.  Many pubs had trees called  the Wild Service Tree (Sorbus Torminalis) in their grounds or nearby and the fruits from these trees, called chequers, were used in the brewing process instead of hops.  The bark of the tree is also in a chequered pattern.  Hence the pub name.

    Nowadays the Wild Service Tree is quite rare.  (I have one growing a short walk from my house).  Frankly it is  unremarkable but if you find one it's probably a sign that you are standing in a patch of ancient woodland.
  • McBobbin
    McBobbin Posts: 12,051
    I bought a really bad thesaurus yesterday. Not only was it bad, it was bad.

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