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R H Draney
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 Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 9:37 am Post subject: Re: Other meanings not listed in dictionaries |
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Peacenik filted:
| Quote: |
"Woody Wordpecker" <exw6sxq@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:58is64lkc7mhebqccmud5dnq9kn6blg3ag@4ax.com...
On Fri, 4 Jul 2008 08:17:37 -0700 (PDT), Arcadian Rises
Arcadianrises@aol.com> said:
What is the figurative meaning (if any) of "town hall" or "Town
Hall"?
When a politician refers to a town-hall meeting, as I
understand it, he or she isn't thinking of "town hall" as a
large public edifice where public meetings are held, but of
a meeting of a group of citizens anywhere there's room for
it.
It's only this year that I began hearing, in media reports, the term "town
hall" without the word "meeting" immediately following it to mean "town hall
meeting".
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I'll go you one better...my employer holds "town halls" at which employees are
invited to discuss their concerns openly and without fear of reprisal with upper
management...they may have been "town hall meetings" at some point in the
distant past, but the final word was dropped long ago, and now the room in which
such meetings are held is called "Town Hall", even when it's being used to serve
little meatballs and stale brownies at someone's retirement....r
--
What good is being an executive if you never get to execute anyone? |
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LFS
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| Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 11:02 am Post subject: Re: Other meanings not listed in dictionaries |
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John Dean wrote:
| Quote: |
Arcadian Rises wrote:
What is the figurative meaning (if any) of "town hall" or "Town
Hall"?
'town halls' is rhyming slang for 'balls'. (Some people put in an apostrophe
at one place or another) As in "You've made a right town halls of that"
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<grin> You can't fool *me*.
--
Laura
(emulate St. George for email) |
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Nick
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| Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 11:02 am Post subject: Re: Other meanings not listed in dictionaries |
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R H Draney wrote:
| Quote: |
Peacenik filted:
"Woody Wordpecker" <exw6sxq@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:58is64lkc7mhebqccmud5dnq9kn6blg3ag@4ax.com...
On Fri, 4 Jul 2008 08:17:37 -0700 (PDT), Arcadian Rises
Arcadianrises@aol.com> said:
What is the figurative meaning (if any) of "town hall" or "Town
Hall"?
When a politician refers to a town-hall meeting, as I
understand it, he or she isn't thinking of "town hall" as a
large public edifice where public meetings are held, but of
a meeting of a group of citizens anywhere there's room for
it.
It's only this year that I began hearing, in media reports, the term "town
hall" without the word "meeting" immediately following it to mean "town hall
meeting".
I'll go you one better...my employer holds "town halls" at which employees are
invited to discuss their concerns openly and without fear of reprisal with upper
management...they may have been "town hall meetings" at some point in the
distant past, but the final word was dropped long ago, and now the room in which
such meetings are held is called "Town Hall", even when it's being used to serve
little meatballs and stale brownies at someone's retirement....r
|
We seem to have dropped (in fact I don't think we ever had it) the
"hall". We have "town meetings". |
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Fred Springer
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| Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 6:54 pm Post subject: Re: Other meanings not listed in dictionaries |
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Peter Duncanson (BrE) wrote:
| Quote: |
Does anyone know the origin of the "hames" used with a similar
meaning?
http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/h.htm
hames Noun. A mess, a shambles. E.g."She made a complete
hames of that meal, by overcooking the beef and making lumpy
gravy." [Irish use]
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"Greenspeak" [1] confirms that definition, and goes on to say: "The term
derives from the two upright curved pieces of iron used in the collar of
draught-horses, to which the traces are attached."
OED confirms that definition of "hame", but the evidence for linking the
two meanings isn't given in "Greenspeak", nor does OED give the "mess"
meaning. None of my slang dictionaries lists the word, and so far as I
can recall I've only ever heard it in Ireland.
| Quote: |
Then there is:
Horlicks Noun. A mess. Dated expression and rarely heard.
E.g."I made a complete horlicks of the situation."
Horlicks is a bedtime drink:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horlicks
I wonder whether it is used as a rhyme with bollicks (variant
pronunciation of bollocks)?
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That's the explanation favoured by Tony Thorne [2], who says: "The word
is used by all social classes and began to appear in print in the late
1980s."
[1] Paddy Sammon. Greenspeak: Ireland in her own words. Dublin,
TownHouse and CountryHouse Ltd, 2002. ISBN 1-86059-144-2
[2] Tony Thorne. Dictionary of contemporary slang. 3rd ed, 2005, A & C
Black. ISBN 0-7136-7504-7 |
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Leslie Danks
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| Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 8:42 pm Post subject: Re: Other meanings not listed in dictionaries |
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R H Draney wrote:
[...]
| Quote: |
I'll go you one better...my employer holds "town halls" at which
employees are invited to discuss their concerns openly and without fear
of reprisal with upper management...they may have been "town hall
meetings" at some point in the distant past, but the final word was
dropped long ago, and now the room in which such meetings are held is
called "Town Hall", even when it's being used to serve little meatballs
and stale brownies at someone's retirement....r
|
Better have a word with the Scoutmaster.
--
Les (BrE) |
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Evan Kirshenbaum
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| Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 1:36 am Post subject: Re: Other meanings not listed in dictionaries |
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Fred Springer <fred.springer@ntlworld.com> writes:
| Quote: |
Peter Duncanson (BrE) wrote:
Does anyone know the origin of the "hames" used with a similar
meaning?
http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/h.htm
hames Noun. A mess, a shambles. E.g."She made a complete
hames of that meal, by overcooking the beef and making lumpy
gravy." [Irish use]
"Greenspeak" [1] confirms that definition, and goes on to say: "The
term derives from the two upright curved pieces of iron used in the
collar of draught-horses, to which the traces are attached."
OED confirms that definition of "hame", but the evidence for linking
the two meanings isn't given in "Greenspeak", nor does OED give the
"mess" meaning. None of my slang dictionaries lists the word, and so
far as I can recall I've only ever heard it in Ireland.
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I see
(possibly because it is difficult to put the hames on a horse the
right way up)
Terence Patric Dolan, _A Dictionary of
Hiberno-English_, 2004
although that seems a bit weak.
--
Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
HP Laboratories |There's been so much ado already
1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |that any further ado would be
Palo Alto, CA 94304 |excessive.
| Lori Karkosky
kirshenbaum@hpl.hp.com
(650)857-7572
http://www.kirshenbaum.net/ |
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