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Posted: |
Dec 28, 2013 - 1:03 AM
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By: |
Josh
(Member)
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(Transplanting WILLIAMDMCCRUM and Mr Greg's comments on the word "curb" from davidinberkeley's "Stuff by the curb" thread...)
This is another of those Americanisms things from the other thread.
In the UK, we'd spell it 'kerb'.
Yup, and "Curb" is something that is done to enthusiasm.
My great-grandmother (1910-1994), who was originally from Wichita, Kansas, USA, called it a "curbin." I always thought that was strange until much later when realized it was Midwestern-speak for "curbing," which is uncommon nowadays but still accurate:
curb·ing (kûrbng)
n.
1. The material used to construct a curb.
2. A row of curbstones; a curb.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/curbing
She also slept with her head on a "pilla" and asked me to wash her "windas" from time to time, bless her heart.
Another American anomaly seems to be putting the punctuation mark that follows a quoted word or phrase that finishes a clause or sentence inside of the closing quotation mark rather than outside (see my first two sentences above).
In other words, you like "tomato", and I like "tomato."
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It's all garbage to me
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British Isles:
Dustbin man
Bin man
Rubbish man
Midden man
Dustman[3]
Refuse collector
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Old joke based on this:
UK garbage collector ('bin-man') calls at a newly arrived US immigrant's door. She has forgotten to leave out her garbage. She takes a long time to open the door:
"Where's your bin, madam?"
"I's bin to de bathroom: where's YOU been, nosey parker?"
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UK : 'gaol'
US; 'jail'.
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Your love and pity doth the impression fill
Which vulgar scandal stamp'd upon my brow;
For what care I who calls me well or ill,
So you o'er-green my bad, my good allow?
-William Shakespeare, Sonnet 112
Indeed Josh. 'Bad' as a noun, not an adjective. Bad as in evil, the noun, not the adjective.
There's an old word used in Scotland and Ireland, 'badness', which means mischief. As in the phrase, 'Just for badness'.
'Why did you knock that guy's hat off?'
'Just for badness.'
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