So, I’ve been watching a lot of a channel called “5 USA” today, with programmes like Frasier, CSI and NCIS. On the whole I think I’m coping with the language reasonably well, even without sub-titles. Who knows? One day, I may even become completely bilingual.
But I’m puzzled as to what the following words mean:
“Doody”
“Fyoodle” (which appears to mean something other than a “time-honoured and highly effective system of government”)
“Fleadh” (which appears to mean something other than a “festival in Ireland”)
“Error” (which appears to mean something other than a “mistake”)
… and, most of all, a really puzzling one:
“Urrrbs” (Frasier says that one a lot, so I’m guessing it’s something either really posh or possibly gay)
Can anyone help?
PS There are probably others but I may not even know that I don’t know them. There are, after all, some things that I don’t know I don’t know.
“Doody” = duty. Or excrement.
“Fyoodle” = futile.
“Fleadh” and “Error” I would have to hear in context.
“Urrrbs” = herbs (Martha Stewart and her ilk pronounce the H). Or, not the suburbs. Meaning the city proper. I use that one myself, thinking myself witty. Example: “I live in the 'burbs. Where do you live?” “In the urbs.”
Oh. How disappointing. I’d have thought it meant “of or pertaining to dude-dom/dudiness/dude-hood”, &/or was a diminutive of “dude”. (“Dude” meaning either a nattily or an ill-dressed fellow, of course…). And “dudiful” would be… an excellent adjective…
“Error” - I guess that would take ages to work out… or a significant period, at least.
Following on from which, would it be time which “fleadhs” past… in a seriously Southern accent, anyway?
That was my first guess, but it might be a presumption too far.
If the noun is “dude”, the proper adjective is usually “dude_ly_”. “Dudesome”: perhaps, but a bit stuffy. “Dudish” is just crass, but it might have its uses in describing a lack of femininity. “Dudeworthy” is an accolade indeed. “Dudeful”, while serviceable, is very odd to my ears, but “dudefully” is a darned good adverb.
Everyone in the UK bar the Cockneys aspirate the h in “herbs”. We imagine youse Yengis picked that nasty habit of dropping the h as a French affectation, what with General Lafayette & Louisville, and whatnot, and generally siding with the frogs until recently.
Dunno how the Ozzies say it. Never heard a Ozzie nor a Kiwi read the back of the sauce bottle. (The HP sauce bottle has a paragraph beginning “a unique blend of herbs and spices…”. It’s typically where most English encounter the word.)
Ah yes. I thought “error” would be a vast extent of time.
Nah … that’s not it. I’ll get it eventually. I’ve got my bilingual dictionary on the way from Amazon. (Though why they should have to ship it all the way from a South American jungle is beyond me. You’d think it would at least be from the bit above the narrow bit …)
No, no, you’ve got that wrong, I’m sure. Surely, Amazon is based in Sarmatia and staffed only by one-breasted warrior women… (And if not, why not?!)
And, oh yes, we Brits have a distinct tendency to aspirate herbs… Makes us cough a lot… but hey,…
We also tend to stay overnight in hotels, whereas Merkins prefer “autels”…
