1. You may think that you know what "braces" are, but have you ever heard that men's suspenders are called "braces" here?
2. Sunday morning on the radio, someone was talking about making a dessert using "Hundreds and Thousands". We had no idea what he was talking about, so I had to ask at church----they are sprinkles like we use on children's cupcakes, etc.! (Maybe that name is used in the U.S., too???)
3. The word "nick" is commonly used for the word "steal", but our housekeepers used it in a slightly different way this week. They were complaining about some of the other housekeepers being lazy and not doing all of their work---they said that the other housekeepers "nick their time".
(Yes, we do have housekeepers that come by every day, but they do not do much to "keep house". They do take the trash away every day and bring clean linens/towels every week. Occasionally they will vacuum or dust the edges of tables, but I mostly do my own cleaning. I think that the housekeepers' main job is cleaning vacated rooms and apartments to get them ready for the next occupants.)
4. There is also a term for someone who does not do his share of the work. He is called a "lead swinger". The term comes from old sailing days, when a sailor was given the job of occasionally dropping a lead depth marker out into the water. That was his only job, so the other sailors did not think he did much work----and they called him the "lead swinger". The term broadened into a common term for a lazy person.
This has nothing to do with new words, but on the way back from the London airport last week, our GPS decided to confuse us. We ended up on some neighborhood streets rather than the main road to Yeovil. We came up to an old bridge with a permanent sign beside it that said "Warning---Weak Bridge". There was lots of traffic, so there was nothing to do but drive over the "weak bridge". In fact, we had to do a u-turn and cross it again! Evidently no one else was worried about it!!
5 comments:
"Warning - Weak Bridge"?!?!?! Wow! I'd be scared to drive over that too! Can you imagine if rather than fixing our bridges the DOT just put up signs like that!?
Very interesting blogs. If you all use all those new words you have learned, we will not know what you are talking about when you get home.
I better get back to work!
Don't worry. While we were in England we learned that the English have sturdy chunky bridges unlike those "skinny" unsafe ones we have in the US.
I read the lead swinger as the one out ahead instead of heavy. Good thing you explained.
I wonder what our weird words are. I guess we would have to ask someone from England.
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