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Heaven: 2021 Proof Americans and Brits speak a different language

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  • I call the front end of any boat the bow, not plural (this includes my canoe and my little sailboat, the former costing more than the latter). Rhymes with "how". Bow can also be said rhyme with hoe. Which is the thing you shoot arrows with or put onto your Christmas presents.

    Also, someone who bends their body forward to bow, has bowed, said to rhyme with how. Someone whose knees flare out has bowed legs said to rhyme with hoe. The pronunciation is different for both for me.

    Have we discussed "slough" yet? A slough, rhyming with slew is a marshy pond which ducks and geese like. "Slough" rhyming with sluff means something like skin flaking off your sunburnt back. Sluff, as in to "sluff off" means to not do something, putting it off. Someone who does this is a slacker and is dogging it.
  • BroJamesBroJames Purgatory Host
    This UK-ian is more familiar with the bow (singular) of a ship.
  • la vie en rougela vie en rouge Purgatory Host, Circus Host
    "Come friendly bombs and rain on Slough" quoth the poet, and having lived near Slough I agree he had a point. Pronounced to rhyme with cow.

    I think the only other time I've come across the word is Bunyan's Slough of Despond.
  • I think the only other time I've come across the word is Bunyan's Slough of Despond.

    I have sometimes described myself as ‘not actually in the Slough of Despond, but more the Gerrards Cross of Feeling a Bit Fed Up’.
  • I used to phone my parents in Gloucestershire to tell them I was stationary in the Despond of Slough on the M4.
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Plus I believe the heads are normally in the bows.
  • We have a nearby waterway called "Sammamish Slough". It's all of 14 miles long and drops 14 feet from end to end. Not a raging rapids. Rhymes with too blue roux.
  • It is fun to explain to a 6 year old the difference between 'cough' and 'cow'. He thought I was having him on again.
  • I think to be 'in the bows' of a ship means on the deck inboard of the bow. Just a vague recollection from Arthur Ransome books.
  • Many sailors just refer to forward - pronounced forrad.
  • Well, I have learned from reading “More tea, Vicar? - the British thread 2020” that while I and other American shipmates will be getting flu shots and COVID shots, British shipmates will be getting flu jabs and COVID jabs.

  • "Jab" isn't uniquely British - more common in the UK, perhaps, but it is heard in Canada.
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    And sometimes here also
  • Nick Tamen wrote: »
    Well, I have learned from reading “More tea, Vicar? - the British thread 2020” that while I and other American shipmates will be getting flu shots and COVID shots, British shipmates will be getting flu jabs and COVID jabs.

    Jags in Scotland, though I think that usage is dying a bit.
  • orfeoorfeo Suspended
    Gee D wrote: »
    And sometimes here also

    Yes. Though I'd go with "shots", it's another example of Australians being bilingual.
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    orfeo wrote: »
    Gee D wrote: »
    And sometimes here also

    Yes. Though I'd go with "shots", it's another example of Australians being bilingual.

    It's perhaps being a bit specialised but around here, people talk of getting the year's flu shots, but a jab after being bitten by the neighbour's dog.
  • orfeoorfeo Suspended
    Sounds plausible.
  • Interesting. I don’t think I’d ever heard or read “jabs” until reading it here.
  • TrudyTrudy Heaven Host
    I've never heard "jabs" here in Canada, only from British people (but might be different in different parts of Canada). It's always "shots" here, to the extent that the provincial website encouraging people to sign up for this year's flu shot has TimeForTheShot as its url.
  • My father, who was born in Finland, but lived in Ontario from late childhood, always referred to it as "getting the jab". @Trudy Where're you at?
  • 'Shots' in UK usage refers to gunshot or alcoholic drink (ie vodka shots). Dont think we use it for anything else.
  • 'Shots' in UK usage refers to gunshot or alcoholic drink (ie vodka shots). Dont think we use it for anything else.
    It means those things in the US too.

  • What else do we use it for?
  • mousethief wrote: »
    What else do we use it for?
    An injection, like “flu shot.”

  • Nick Tamen wrote: »
    mousethief wrote: »
    What else do we use it for?
    An injection, like “flu shot.”

    Ah! It's early and I've not had my tea yet.
  • TrudyTrudy Heaven Host
    My father, who was born in Finland, but lived in Ontario from late childhood, always referred to it as "getting the jab". @Trudy Where're you at?

    I'm in Newfoundland.
  • I'm not personally an an old fart. And beyond middle aged. Older adults fart more, though perhaps I should note that I know of one person who farts more when older.

    Which brings me to farts are called where you live. Having gas, and passing gas was usual when I was young. Breaking or passing wind was something I heard to describe this later. Fart was thought of as a semi-bad word.

    Surely there will be no farting in heaven, the other place please
  • 'Shot' is a useful multi-purpose word in North America, meaning either a needle or a small glass of hard liquor. Sometimes the functions are closely related, of course.
  • And "to have a shot at" means either (a) you have a sporting chance (he has a shot at winning the Gluckman Trophy this year), or (b) to try doing something (sure, I'll have a shot at it).
  • TrudyTrudy Heaven Host
    And among the young folks (at least, two years ago - the language changes so quickly!) to "shoot your shot" meant to ask out, or declare your love for, the object of your desire.
  • "Shots" can also be used for photographs. We once had a camera store called the Shots Shop, but then Amazon came along.
  • When you say that someone is "calling the shots" does that have to do with photography?
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    edited December 2020
    Not necessarily - that means that the person referred to is setting out the rules, directing what is to be done. That of course may be in relation to the taking of photos, or how the half-dead apple tree out the back is to be cut down, or anything else you can think of.
  • I am guessing (totally guessing) that calling the shots derives from someone being in command of a riflery unit. It would be that person's job to "call the shots" (let people know when to start shooting, and when to stop, etc.)
  • I am guessing (totally guessing) that calling the shots derives from someone being in command of a riflery unit. It would be that person's job to "call the shots" (let people know when to start shooting, and when to stop, etc.)

    That makes more sense.
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    I am guessing (totally guessing) that calling the shots derives from someone being in command of a riflery unit. It would be that person's job to "call the shots" (let people know when to start shooting, and when to stop, etc.)

    Well put
  • Actually from artillery - a spotter would 'call' where the shot fell so that the angle of a gun could be altered.
  • I always thought that "calling the shots" had to do with pool, though it would make more sense in the context of curling, in which the skip literally calls the shot to be played.
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    I always thought that "calling the shots" had to do with pool, though it would make more sense in the context of curling, in which the skip literally calls the shot to be played.

    The phrase has used here throughout my lifetime, probably much longer although curling is unknown. I'd doubt that derivation.
  • orfeoorfeo Suspended
    You were given the derivation.
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    Hmmmm..."jab" sounds rather...off-putting, like "jabbing someone in the stomach" or anywhere else. I suppose "shot" has the gun connotations, but I don't think of them...unless we're talking about a pneumatic (?) vaccination "gun". Bad experience with that.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    edited December 2020
    Golden Key wrote: »
    Hmmmm..."jab" sounds rather...off-putting, like "jabbing someone in the stomach" or anywhere else. I suppose "shot" has the gun connotations, but I don't think of them...unless we're talking about a pneumatic (?) vaccination "gun". Bad experience with that.

    None of these terms are particularly helpful if you already have a needle phobia.

    Well, they call it a phobia, but what's irrational about fearing a painful process involving sharp objects?
  • KarlLB wrote: »
    Golden Key wrote: »
    Hmmmm..."jab" sounds rather...off-putting, like "jabbing someone in the stomach" or anywhere else. I suppose "shot" has the gun connotations, but I don't think of them...unless we're talking about a pneumatic (?) vaccination "gun". Bad experience with that.

    None of these terms are particularly helpful if you already have a needle phobia.

    Well, they call it a phobia, but what's irrational about fearing a painful process involving sharp objects?
    Quite right.
    It’s a very bad time to have such a phobia.
  • Why not call it an injection and have done withit? Or, if you have a needle phobia, an 'experience' or 'event'.
  • Tree Bee wrote: »
    KarlLB wrote: »
    Golden Key wrote: »
    Hmmmm..."jab" sounds rather...off-putting, like "jabbing someone in the stomach" or anywhere else. I suppose "shot" has the gun connotations, but I don't think of them...unless we're talking about a pneumatic (?) vaccination "gun". Bad experience with that.

    None of these terms are particularly helpful if you already have a needle phobia.

    Well, they call it a phobia, but what's irrational about fearing a painful process involving sharp objects?
    Quite right.
    It’s a very bad time to have such a phobia.

    Not quite right. What is "irrational" about a phobia is not the object of the phobia but the severity.
  • Another word... After a routine burglary when we lived for a short time in Texas, my wife told the police officer that she'd seen a gaggle of teenage girls hanging around outside. He thought for a moment and said, "No, ma'am - you mean a passel" (parcel, I think).
  • The word is etymologically a variant of “parcel,” but it is “passel.” It means a large number. Per the Online Etymological Dictionary, “its use in colloquial American English to mean ‘a large group or number’ of persons or things is attested from 1835.”
  • Pangolin GuerrePangolin Guerre Shipmate
    edited December 2020
    orfeo wrote: »
    You were given the derivation.

    I was confessing my errors, thank you.
  • Regarding shots and jabs, apparently both started being used in American drug users' slang in the early 20th century. I don't know why one become popular in the UK and the other in North America.

    Link
  • BroJamesBroJames Purgatory Host
    Working link
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