I was re-watching some Glee episodes for another module and I realise Glee has many new and interesting lexical items. So here's 2 more:
diva-off and glee-off - used in the same way as faceoff (an open confrontation, courtesy of Dictionary.com)
Glee-off, which is what they called the mash-up competition between the guys and the girls in the Vitamin D episode, is probably only used specific to that situation and in Glee itself. Kurt's and Rachel's competition against each other in determining who gets to do the Defying Gravity solo is called a diva off and I focused on looking for dictionary entries on this instead and I couldn't find any even in Urban Dictionary. This has probably been newly coined, perhaps by Glee itself. I wonder whether it will catch on soon? And what if we coin our own terms like, oh I don't know...school-off? makan-off? haha. This is quite exciting. =)
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
crude slangs
You know how some guys can be pigs (I said 'some' don't get defensive okay guys =P) and objectify women in the most crude ways?
So 2 terms that I've come across recently which I've made links to: "tap that" and "hit that".
The words tap and hit, they're common and simple enough for us to know the meanings to. But I was watching Grey's Anatomy the other day and one of the male characters said "I'd hit that hard" in reference to a hot nurse in the hospital. And in many American films/dramas/sitcoms I've heard the phrase "I'd tap that" used very frequently.
In the Urban Dictionary "tap" generated this:
A term used to express approval, especially to the point of expressing a person's
sex appeal; often used sarcastically
Person 1: Did you see that chick?
Person 2: I'd tap that!
When I typed in "hit", I found this:
1. To inhale a drug
2. To have sex with
1. Pass that bud lemme hit it
2. Damn that girl's a dime.. I'd hit it
There's one more thing from the episode of Grey's anatomy that I wanted to point out. One of the senior characters in the drama felt left out in the hospital gossip and consequently felt lonely. So he attempted to integrate himself into the group of young sergeons by picking up on their lingo. So he started making a comment about a nurse during one scene in the operating room, and he said "I'd hit her, I'd hit her hard" and there was a moment of uncomfortable silence followed by one of the younger surgeons correcting him by saying "I think what you're trying to say is I'd hit THAT" and I just burt out laughing because at that moment I understood that their lingo meaning of "hit" collocates only with "that/this/it" and to say "hit her" must have made the other characters in the OR feel a tad uncomfortable and some even scared.
So anyway these words collocate must with "this/that/it" (read: objectifying women!!!!) in order to convey the intended meaning, or else the slang would just have failed miserably.
So 2 terms that I've come across recently which I've made links to: "tap that" and "hit that".
The words tap and hit, they're common and simple enough for us to know the meanings to. But I was watching Grey's Anatomy the other day and one of the male characters said "I'd hit that hard" in reference to a hot nurse in the hospital. And in many American films/dramas/sitcoms I've heard the phrase "I'd tap that" used very frequently.
In the Urban Dictionary "tap" generated this:
A term used to express approval, especially to the point of expressing a person's
sex appeal; often used sarcastically
Person 1: Did you see that chick?
Person 2: I'd tap that!
When I typed in "hit", I found this:
1. To inhale a drug
2. To have sex with
1. Pass that bud lemme hit it
2. Damn that girl's a dime.. I'd hit it
There's one more thing from the episode of Grey's anatomy that I wanted to point out. One of the senior characters in the drama felt left out in the hospital gossip and consequently felt lonely. So he attempted to integrate himself into the group of young sergeons by picking up on their lingo. So he started making a comment about a nurse during one scene in the operating room, and he said "I'd hit her, I'd hit her hard" and there was a moment of uncomfortable silence followed by one of the younger surgeons correcting him by saying "I think what you're trying to say is I'd hit THAT" and I just burt out laughing because at that moment I understood that their lingo meaning of "hit" collocates only with "that/this/it" and to say "hit her" must have made the other characters in the OR feel a tad uncomfortable and some even scared.
So anyway these words collocate must with "this/that/it" (read: objectifying women!!!!) in order to convey the intended meaning, or else the slang would just have failed miserably.
Glee! part 2
And I just remembered something else about Glee! One of the episodes entitled Acafellas, one of the characters, Merecedes, falls for a fellow Glee Club member who happens to be gay and busy body Rachel notices this and wants to intervene and says this:
Rachel: We need to have a gayvention...That's a gay intervention!
Tina: It's K-k-k-kurt!" Tina elaborates. He's ladyfabulous.
"Gayvention". Creative no? I was looking for other instances where "gayvention" being used on the web, but I found that the term has been used by people but not exactly in the way that Rachel is using it above.
At , http://eurout.org/2009/02/28/we-are-everywhere-%E2%80%93-february-28?page=0,6 I found:
•Next weekend the annual Gayvention will take place in Hamburg. Gayvention is the queer convention when it comes to lifestyle and includes auctions, erotica quizzes, and speed dating.
So here the word indicates an event, a perhaps a gay convention rather than a gay intervention.
And, the most exciting thing is, I thought I could find a definition on Urban Dictionary, but it hasn't even been defined yet there! So this is very very new. Or maybe, it just hasn't caught on as successfully as other creatively invented words.
Rachel: We need to have a gayvention...That's a gay intervention!
Tina: It's K-k-k-kurt!" Tina elaborates. He's ladyfabulous.
"Gayvention". Creative no? I was looking for other instances where "gayvention" being used on the web, but I found that the term has been used by people but not exactly in the way that Rachel is using it above.
At , http://eurout.org/2009/02/28/we-are-everywhere-%E2%80%93-february-28?page=0,6 I found:
•Next weekend the annual Gayvention will take place in Hamburg. Gayvention is the queer convention when it comes to lifestyle and includes auctions, erotica quizzes, and speed dating.
So here the word indicates an event, a perhaps a gay convention rather than a gay intervention.
And, the most exciting thing is, I thought I could find a definition on Urban Dictionary, but it hasn't even been defined yet there! So this is very very new. Or maybe, it just hasn't caught on as successfully as other creatively invented words.
Glee!
Some time ago as I was catching up with an old friend at a cafe, the song "Don't Stop Believing" came on the radio, the version done by the cast of Glee. And both of us started singing along at the same time and immediately she gasped and went "OMG! You're a gleek too?" and that stunned me for a while. I mean, what's a gleek?
I went to look the term up and I got this from the free online dictionary:
n. 1.
1. A jest or scoff; a trick or deception.
Where's the Bastard's braves, and Charles his gleeks ?
- Shak.
2. An enticing look or glance.
A pretty gleek coming from Pallas' eye.
- Beau. & Fl.
v. i. 1. To make sport; to gibe; to sneer; to spend time idly.
n. 1.
1. A game at cards, once popular, played by three persons.
2. Three of the same cards held in the same hand; - hence, three of anything.
Obviously, how my friend used the term gleek is not reflected in the above entry. Soooo I went to look up the word in the urban dictionary:
1.
gleek
March 8, 2007 Urban Word of the Day
building up saliva in the salivary glands using some stimulus, like sour food or yawning, and then pressing the tongue upon the glands, causing the saliva to shoot out, usually at an impressive distance.
Shit, Eric just gleeked all over my food!
by mike Apr 26, 2003 share this
2.
gleek
the use of ones saliva glands to shoot the saliva a credible disatnce, with the intention of hitting someone
Damnit Matt, your fucking uncle gleeked on me again
by martay Feb 18, 2003 share this
3.
Gleek
To LOVE the show Glee, or if you are in Glee club at your school.
Oh my God, I'm a total Gleek too!!
Bingo. Third meaning there is what I was looking for. So it’s become a term to describe people who are totally in love with the show Glee. How amazing is that? Within months, and just because of a television show, new words are created. And I never knew that people used gleek in the above contexts. Any other fellow gleeks amongst you?
I went to look the term up and I got this from the free online dictionary:
n. 1.
1. A jest or scoff; a trick or deception.
Where's the Bastard's braves, and Charles his gleeks ?
- Shak.
2. An enticing look or glance.
A pretty gleek coming from Pallas' eye.
- Beau. & Fl.
v. i. 1. To make sport; to gibe; to sneer; to spend time idly.
n. 1.
1. A game at cards, once popular, played by three persons.
2. Three of the same cards held in the same hand; - hence, three of anything.
Obviously, how my friend used the term gleek is not reflected in the above entry. Soooo I went to look up the word in the urban dictionary:
1.
gleek
March 8, 2007 Urban Word of the Day
building up saliva in the salivary glands using some stimulus, like sour food or yawning, and then pressing the tongue upon the glands, causing the saliva to shoot out, usually at an impressive distance.
Shit, Eric just gleeked all over my food!
by mike Apr 26, 2003 share this
2.
gleek
the use of ones saliva glands to shoot the saliva a credible disatnce, with the intention of hitting someone
Damnit Matt, your fucking uncle gleeked on me again
by martay Feb 18, 2003 share this
3.
Gleek
To LOVE the show Glee, or if you are in Glee club at your school.
Oh my God, I'm a total Gleek too!!
Bingo. Third meaning there is what I was looking for. So it’s become a term to describe people who are totally in love with the show Glee. How amazing is that? Within months, and just because of a television show, new words are created. And I never knew that people used gleek in the above contexts. Any other fellow gleeks amongst you?
That's one smart little bob
I've been wanting to get a haircut for the longest time but I didn't know what kind of haircut to get. So as usual I turned to google for some advice. I googled haircuts and I found a few interesting terms for hairdos that I had never even heard before. Like I didn't know there were different kinds of bobs you can have, I thought when you have a bob, it's just called a bob. Am I disgracing womankind? Haha. So anyway this one term attracted my attention: a graduated bob
GRADUATED bob? Only graduates can have this hairstyle? Of course not that's a ridiculous idea but that was the first thing that crossed my mind. So I went to wiki this and Voila! Found out what a graduated bob is:
Graduated Bob : Section hair to 4 parts. Cut radially to 90 deg. Deeper layers than Sliding haircut.
Which looks like this:
So anyway I suppose it does fit the other meaning of graduated which is:
graduated(gr
j
-
t
d)
j-td) Divided into or marked with intervals indicating measures, as of length, volume, or temperature.
But then again, the collocation of the word, with something associated with fashion, to me doesn't quite have a natural link.
tweet or twitter?
Twitter, like Facebook, has become and integral part of our lives now hasn't it? For a significant number of people at least. And being the innovative people we are, new words and terms are coined. So words that are specific to Twitter: twitter/tweet, twittering/tweeting, tweeted/twittered, tweets.
These words are already pre-existing but Twitter has brought about new meanings to them. The dictionary meanings for those words are as follows:
twit·ter (twtr)
v. twit·tered, twit·ter·ing, twit·ters
v.intr.
1. To utter a succession of light chirping or tremulous sounds; chirrup.
2.
a. To speak rapidly and in a tremulous manner: twittering over office gossip.
b. To giggle nervously; titter.
3. To tremble with nervous agitation or excitement.
v.tr.
To utter or say with a twitter: twittered a greeting.
n.
1.
a. The light chirping sound made by certain birds.
b. A similar sound, especially light, tremulous speech or laughter.
2. Agitation or excitement; flutter
and
tweet (twt)
n.
A weak chirping sound, as of a young or small bird.
intr.v. tweet·ed, tweet·ing, tweets
To utter a weak chirping sound.
With twitter now, sentences like "I haven't tweeted anything today" or "Did you read her latest tweets" are very common. I'm wondering though whether tweet and twitter in Twitter context can be used interchangeably? I suppose they are. I always use the verb "tweet" but I know many people say "I haven't twittered anything today" instead of the sentence above. What about you guys? What do you think? Do you have preferences? And why?
These words are already pre-existing but Twitter has brought about new meanings to them. The dictionary meanings for those words are as follows:
twit·ter (twtr)
v. twit·tered, twit·ter·ing, twit·ters
v.intr.
1. To utter a succession of light chirping or tremulous sounds; chirrup.
2.
a. To speak rapidly and in a tremulous manner: twittering over office gossip.
b. To giggle nervously; titter.
3. To tremble with nervous agitation or excitement.
v.tr.
To utter or say with a twitter: twittered a greeting.
n.
1.
a. The light chirping sound made by certain birds.
b. A similar sound, especially light, tremulous speech or laughter.
2. Agitation or excitement; flutter
and
tweet (twt)
n.
A weak chirping sound, as of a young or small bird.
intr.v. tweet·ed, tweet·ing, tweets
To utter a weak chirping sound.
With twitter now, sentences like "I haven't tweeted anything today" or "Did you read her latest tweets" are very common. I'm wondering though whether tweet and twitter in Twitter context can be used interchangeably? I suppose they are. I always use the verb "tweet" but I know many people say "I haven't twittered anything today" instead of the sentence above. What about you guys? What do you think? Do you have preferences? And why?
treats anyone?
Some time ago I was in the mood to do some baking so I went to browse through one of my most favourite websites EVER, allrecipes.com. As I was looking for some recipes for oatmeal cookies, one of the links attracted my attention: Portable Treats.
Okay I'm not sure if any of you agree with me but when I hear the word portable, I think of things like, portable CD player, portable television, etc. Mostly big items. Has anyone heard of portable being used with food? I know technically, following the definition given for the word portable (1. able to be carried or moved easily, esp by hand) , it is possible to use the word in that way but to me it's really funny? Portable treats. Portable food. Food is generally easily carried or moved by hand, so is it necessary use the word portable?
i'm bringing sexy back
Okay I was googling the phrase "sexy back" for fun to see if the meaning I thought it carried. I always thought it was a funky way of saying something cool and trendy is happening. Here are some contexts in which the phrase is used:
"Reality show vows to bring sexy back to flying."
"Pamela Anderson brings sexy back to DWTS"
"Explicit category could bring sexy back to Apple's app store"
So in all these three phrases above, it "sexy back" collocates with the verb "to bring". It seems to mean that when something lacks, or has lost its cool or trendy factor, sexy has to be brought back to it in some way.
So I went to check the meaning of "sexy back" on Urban Dictionary and I found this meaning here:
(to bring) Sexy Back.
A phrase used to describe something as really hot/cool/now/fly/happening/trendy, or something which has become cool due to one bring sexy back to it.
A phrase used to describe something as really hot/cool/now/fly/happening/trendy, or something which has become cool due to one bring sexy back to it.
Man did you heard 'Promiscuous Girl'? Nelly Furtado has brought sexy back!!!
Damn I own at Miss. Pacman. I'm bringing sexy back to the arcade!
You seen the new Aston DB9. That car is bringing sexy back!
Damn I own at Miss. Pacman. I'm bringing sexy back to the arcade!
You seen the new Aston DB9. That car is bringing sexy back!
But this meaning was numbered 2. The number 1 meaning, as I read it, gave me a really unpleasant surprise. I didn't know that it meant this as well:
A common phrase in the world of S&M, sexy back is often used by the Sadist to describe a masochist who is exposing a hairless and toned back that is to be either whipped or flogged. The Sadist will prefer a sexy back over a non-sexy back as the colour of the masochist's skin will appear more red at the end of the session, than it would if there was hair there. Also should the Sadist choose to dig their nails into the masochist's back there will be less interference of hair and thus more pain for the masochist to experience.
In Justin Timberlake's song entitled Sexy Back, Justin is expressing that he is bringing Sexy Back to his Mistress in hopes that she will be pleased to see him in massive pain by the time she is done with him. The song then goes on to expain the session in more detail...
Dirty babe
You see these shackles
Baby I'm your slave
I'll let you whip me if I misbehave
It's just that no one makes me feel this way
Dirty babe
You see these shackles
Baby I'm your slave
I'll let you whip me if I misbehave
It's just that no one makes me feel this way
Interesting. =/
Don't stop, make it pop, DJ blow my speakers up!
I'm sure many of us have heard of the overplayed song by Kesha called Tik Tok. Well it was playing on my iPod and I was just singing along to the lyrics. And there's this one line that has always caught my attention:
I'm talking pedicures on our toes (toes)
Tryin on all our clothes (clothes)
Boys blowin up our phones (phones)
Boys blowin up our phones (phones)
(if you're interested, the full lyrics of the song can be found here: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/k/kesha/tik_tok.html)
I know songs are known to have the license to be creative and play around with words and all that. "Blow up our phones" really appealed to me. What does it mean? Obviously not that the phones explode right. I googled the phrase "blow up" to find out if the meaning used in the song had any prior existence and has been used.
blow up
1. To come into being: A storm blew up.
2. To fill with air; inflate: blow up a tire.
3. To enlarge (a photographic image or print).
4. To explode: bombs blowing up.
5. To lose one's temper.
Obviously the meaning carried by "blow up" in the song does not fall into any of the above meanings of the phrase. so then, I went to check out if Urban Dictionary could give me any answers. And lo and behold!
| blow up | ||
to inundate a device with messages I was asleep for only two hours and my pager blew up! | ||
Bingo! Seems like this term has been used by people to indicate the flooding of messages in one's phone. Interesting stuff no? I suppose it's like saying if your phone has been flooded with many messages, your phone could metaphorically "explode"?
Sunday, March 28, 2010
healthy eating...NOT
when we think about healthy eating, fast food is way down there at the bottom of the list. better yet, it shouldn't even be on the list. McDonalds is a very popular fast food conglomerate and there have been issues about McDonalds being a catalyst for obesity in the U.S and things like that (have you guys watched Supersize Me? watch it if you haven't!). and i know they have been trying to make some changes to their marketing strategies in order to overcome the stigma and the many law suits (Americans just love suing people don't they) that have been thrown on them. so anyway i was browsing through their website and i found it interesting how their choice of words in their 'Eat Smart' page suggests that at the end of the day, it's all about personal choice.
the obvious emphasis on 'choice' and being 'smart' pushes the blame AWAY from McDonalds and onto the individual themselves. smart right? i mean i know as linguists we come across this all the time but til now i am still so amazed at how smth as simple as choice of words can open up a whole myriad of suggestions and meanings. awesome i tell you.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
ATTACK!
i bought some handphone stickers the other day to decorate my new mouse and my external hard drive. and this was what was written at the back of the packaging. "when sticker was is assaulted by brute force". now this cracks me up to no end! assaulting the sticker by brute force! talk about inappropriate context!
tired, or pain?
okay so besides the grammatical error, let's ignore that for now. when i saw this of course it first struck me as ungrammatical but the next moment i was thinking. i mean an ad for a health product that provides relief from pain or fatigue, i suppose these are the main words they want to put out there to the viewing public right. catch your attention with the word "tired" which we all always feel and "pain" you get your audience attention already, regardless of whether it is grammatical or not? am i making any sense?
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
get your translations right!
Okay i've been collecting a number of things to blog about but i've been so swarmed that i haven't got the time to update. BUT i really want to blog about what i found today first. =)
so today during class we were exploring ideas about bilingual dictionaries and the second half of the class we were playing around with different translation websites and i found something really interesting which i'm hoping you guys can share your thoughts on. so anyway there were very few translation websites that offer English to Malay or Malay to English translations, in fact many Asian languages are not featured. But google translate and full text translator at translate.reference.com featured Malay. as i was playing around with the translations i was having quite a good laugh. then i tried this simple sentence: "I accidentally spilled the milk." And THIS is what i got =) :
from google translate
from translate.reference.com
i was very amused by the results because both translation website produced the same translation, which is happens to be WRONG!
"Aku sengaja menumpahkan susu." translate to "I purposely spilled the milk." doesn;t that produce the opposite meaning to my originally intended sentence????
the translation should look something like this instead: "Aku menumpahkan susu dengan tidak sengaja." this is of course a direct translation but still grammatically correct in Malay and conveys my intially intended meaning!
any thoughts guys? i mean BOTH translators made the same mistake.
so today during class we were exploring ideas about bilingual dictionaries and the second half of the class we were playing around with different translation websites and i found something really interesting which i'm hoping you guys can share your thoughts on. so anyway there were very few translation websites that offer English to Malay or Malay to English translations, in fact many Asian languages are not featured. But google translate and full text translator at translate.reference.com featured Malay. as i was playing around with the translations i was having quite a good laugh. then i tried this simple sentence: "I accidentally spilled the milk." And THIS is what i got =) :
from google translate
from translate.reference.com
i was very amused by the results because both translation website produced the same translation, which is happens to be WRONG!
"Aku sengaja menumpahkan susu." translate to "I purposely spilled the milk." doesn;t that produce the opposite meaning to my originally intended sentence????
the translation should look something like this instead: "Aku menumpahkan susu dengan tidak sengaja." this is of course a direct translation but still grammatically correct in Malay and conveys my intially intended meaning!
any thoughts guys? i mean BOTH translators made the same mistake.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
cornered
so i teach at CHIJ Katong Primary on Monday mornings and i was just looking around the canteen during my break and this stall name got me thinking.
if you can't see the image clearly the stall name is actually "Sedap Corner". "Sedap" is the malay word for delicious in case you didn't know. anyway the stall name got me thinking about how important names of places are in not only attracting attention but also portraying a particular image the stall owners wants to associate themselves with. of course, in a primary school, kids don't really care about the stall names. there's no need for any major marketing strategies. haha. but it reminded me of Adam's Corner, a popular food place in Singapore and then i thought of Poet's Corner and Speaker's Corner. basically the word "corner" haa been used in naming places, or groups. Looking the word up in the Longman dictionary online, i also found that in Britain, there's a term called "corner shop" which refers to a small shop near houses where people go to get daily needs, very much like our local mama shops. and the urban dictionary online described corners as places where 1) one can go to to get drugs, and 2) where one can find prostitutes. these rather controversial meanings aside, the point i'm trying to make is, obviously these places are not named "corners" based on their geographical location but rather the word has been made to refer to a quiet secluded place. as for Adam's Corner and Sedap Corner, i suppose the image being portrayed here is more of a humble and and cosy area for friends to get together to have a nice meal. the image targeted here by the use of the word "corner" is obviously not one that is grand and high-class. the word more appropriately indicates something more homey and close to heart.
if you can't see the image clearly the stall name is actually "Sedap Corner". "Sedap" is the malay word for delicious in case you didn't know. anyway the stall name got me thinking about how important names of places are in not only attracting attention but also portraying a particular image the stall owners wants to associate themselves with. of course, in a primary school, kids don't really care about the stall names. there's no need for any major marketing strategies. haha. but it reminded me of Adam's Corner, a popular food place in Singapore and then i thought of Poet's Corner and Speaker's Corner. basically the word "corner" haa been used in naming places, or groups. Looking the word up in the Longman dictionary online, i also found that in Britain, there's a term called "corner shop" which refers to a small shop near houses where people go to get daily needs, very much like our local mama shops. and the urban dictionary online described corners as places where 1) one can go to to get drugs, and 2) where one can find prostitutes. these rather controversial meanings aside, the point i'm trying to make is, obviously these places are not named "corners" based on their geographical location but rather the word has been made to refer to a quiet secluded place. as for Adam's Corner and Sedap Corner, i suppose the image being portrayed here is more of a humble and and cosy area for friends to get together to have a nice meal. the image targeted here by the use of the word "corner" is obviously not one that is grand and high-class. the word more appropriately indicates something more homey and close to heart.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Welcome/ First post
Hi everyone!
Hope the semester is going well for you so far. Can't say the same for myself though. Haha. Anyway welcome to my blog! Looking forward to all of your interesting posts and I'll try my best to entertain you with my own daily experiences with the English lexicon. =)
So for my first entry, I'd like to talk about a word I came across while reading "Shopoholic Abroad", a popular chic lit written by Sophie Kinsella (please don't judge me, a girl is entitled to a little bit of mindless reading and escapism once in a while =P). I came across this word: portaloo. This immediately caught my attention and I turned to every NUS student's digital bible, Wikipedia, and I found out that it actually refers to a portable toilet. But what is more interesting is in the following paragraph taken from the Wikipedia entry on portable toilets:
"A portable toilet is a modern, portable, self-contained outhouse manufactured of molded plastic in a variety of colors and is often used as a temporary toilet for construction sites and large gatherings and events. Portable toilets are referred to colloquially or sold under such brands as Porta-John, PortaJane, Johnny On The Spot, Port-O-Let, Port-a-Loo, Porta-Potty, Tidy John, John To Go, Biffs, and Toi-Toi."
Based on the above quote, it seems that the colloquial word was derived from brand name rather than anything else. I found this rather interesting because it got me thinking about the different words that exist today which can refer to a toilet. Off the top of my head I can think of words like washroom, bathroom, lavatory, ladies and gents/men's room. Googling it, I found terms like loo (a British term), WC (which stands for Water Closet commonly used in France), CR (short for Comfort Room commonly used in the Philippines), Dunny (an Australian expression for an outdoor toilet), Privy (old-fashioned word used mostly in North England and Scotland which is actually an alternative word to "private") and Latrine (a term commonly used in military which refers to "any point of entry facility where human waste is disposed of, which a civilian might call a bathroom or toilet, regardless of how modern or primitive it is"). It is really interesting how such a universal and common concept like "toilet" can have many different terms in different societies. I'm wondering if any of you have come across any other terms which I've left out here? Do share!
And if you noticed the Wikipedia entry I quoted earlier also mentions "Johnny On The Spot" which we came across in one of our earlier lectures. Again, Google or Wikipedia is the answer to everything isn't it? The expression can apparently refer to a portable toilet as well but according to dictionary.reference.com,
John·ny-on-the-spot (jŏn'ē-ŏn'thə-spŏt', -ôn'-)
n. Informal
A person who is available and ready to act when needed.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
So it's an idiom which is used to refer to an extremely reliable person, an American idiom. How does that link to a portable toilet? Maybe the company who named their portable toilet brand "Johnny on the Spot" is saying that their portable toilets are "available and ready to act when needed".
Do share with me your thoughts and ideas on this. =)
laters!
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet#Etymology
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_toilet
- http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Johnny-on-the-spot
Hope the semester is going well for you so far. Can't say the same for myself though. Haha. Anyway welcome to my blog! Looking forward to all of your interesting posts and I'll try my best to entertain you with my own daily experiences with the English lexicon. =)
So for my first entry, I'd like to talk about a word I came across while reading "Shopoholic Abroad", a popular chic lit written by Sophie Kinsella (please don't judge me, a girl is entitled to a little bit of mindless reading and escapism once in a while =P). I came across this word: portaloo. This immediately caught my attention and I turned to every NUS student's digital bible, Wikipedia, and I found out that it actually refers to a portable toilet. But what is more interesting is in the following paragraph taken from the Wikipedia entry on portable toilets:
"A portable toilet is a modern, portable, self-contained outhouse manufactured of molded plastic in a variety of colors and is often used as a temporary toilet for construction sites and large gatherings and events. Portable toilets are referred to colloquially or sold under such brands as Porta-John, PortaJane, Johnny On The Spot, Port-O-Let, Port-a-Loo, Porta-Potty, Tidy John, John To Go, Biffs, and Toi-Toi."
Based on the above quote, it seems that the colloquial word was derived from brand name rather than anything else. I found this rather interesting because it got me thinking about the different words that exist today which can refer to a toilet. Off the top of my head I can think of words like washroom, bathroom, lavatory, ladies and gents/men's room. Googling it, I found terms like loo (a British term), WC (which stands for Water Closet commonly used in France), CR (short for Comfort Room commonly used in the Philippines), Dunny (an Australian expression for an outdoor toilet), Privy (old-fashioned word used mostly in North England and Scotland which is actually an alternative word to "private") and Latrine (a term commonly used in military which refers to "any point of entry facility where human waste is disposed of, which a civilian might call a bathroom or toilet, regardless of how modern or primitive it is"). It is really interesting how such a universal and common concept like "toilet" can have many different terms in different societies. I'm wondering if any of you have come across any other terms which I've left out here? Do share!
And if you noticed the Wikipedia entry I quoted earlier also mentions "Johnny On The Spot" which we came across in one of our earlier lectures. Again, Google or Wikipedia is the answer to everything isn't it? The expression can apparently refer to a portable toilet as well but according to dictionary.reference.com,
John·ny-on-the-spot (jŏn'ē-ŏn'thə-spŏt', -ôn'-)
n. Informal
A person who is available and ready to act when needed.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
So it's an idiom which is used to refer to an extremely reliable person, an American idiom. How does that link to a portable toilet? Maybe the company who named their portable toilet brand "Johnny on the Spot" is saying that their portable toilets are "available and ready to act when needed".
Do share with me your thoughts and ideas on this. =)
laters!
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet#Etymology
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_toilet
- http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Johnny-on-the-spot
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