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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

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July 24, 2007, 11:30
wordcrafter
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
The final book in the Harry Potter series hit the bookstores last weekend and has been, as expected, a smashing success. So it seems appropriate to devote this week to words from that book.

billycan – (Australian) any container in which water may be carried and boiled over a campfire, ranging from a makeshift tin can to a special earthenware kettle

This message has been edited. Last edited by: wordcrafter,
July 24, 2007, 18:47
Caterwauller
I knew this one from Elementary Music class . . .
quote:
And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boil,
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me.


Billy being a billycan, of course.


*******
"Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.
~Dalai Lama
July 24, 2007, 21:07
KHC
Oh, CW... I just love that song!! And they don't teach the old ballads now in elem school like they did when we were young... well, when I was young; I think you are a lot younger than me. Remember Sal on the Erie Canal... ?
July 25, 2007, 11:15
wordcrafter
vol-au-vent – a small light puff pastry filled with a meat or fish ragout
[French, ‘flight in the wind’]
July 26, 2007, 07:11
Caterwauller
vol-au-vent is a real dish? I thought it was a silly made up thing! Can you still get them in the UK? Sounds delicious!


*******
"Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.
~Dalai Lama
July 26, 2007, 07:13
Caterwauller
quote:
Remember Sal on the Erie Canal

Oh yes, all of the Erie Canal songs were very popular in Ohio schools, since we had canals here! You can still go see some of the locks in operation, even!

My favorite is Buffalo Gals, won't you come out tonight? . . . but I also very much like the barge song . . . out of my window, looking in the night, I can see the barges' flickering lights . . .

Do you know either of those?


*******
"Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.
~Dalai Lama
July 26, 2007, 07:27
wordnerd
quote: My favorite is Buffalo Gals, won't you come out tonight . . . Do you know [this]?

Every Christmas season the US television stations, understandably, program a huge dollop of Christmas-themed movies. And the most ubiquitously-shone, unavoidble of them is James Stewart's It's a Wonderful Life. In that movie Stewart and his lady-love sing an a capella duet of Buffalo Girls.

So I'd say that darn near every American knows of that song, even if he or she may not be consciously aware of it. Is the movie as omnipresent UK as well?
July 26, 2007, 07:32
Richard English
quote:
vol-au-vent is a real dish? I thought it was a silly made up thing! Can you still get them in the UK? Sounds delicious!

I was eating some only yesterday in the Burlington Arcade.


Richard English
July 26, 2007, 07:41
arnie
quote:
Is the movie as omnipresent UK as well?
Pretty much. It may not be shown every Christmas, but it seems like it.
quote:
vol-au-vents
Surely that should be vols-au-vent? Cool


Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
July 26, 2007, 08:50
wordcrafter
In today's passage, as Aberforth vents his jealously of his brother, authoress Rowling comes quite close to "language not suitable for minors."berk – a stupid person that is easily taken advantage of
[abbreviation of Berkeley or Berkshire Hunt, rhyming slang for c*nt].
orifice – a hole opening into a bodily cavity
July 26, 2007, 09:58
Caterwauller
Oooh - I knew berk was an insult, but I didn't know what it really meant. Oh my!

I noticed, though, near the end of the book that Molly Weasley utters what I thought was the only word I'd really consider a "bad" word in the whole series when she calls someone else a Bitch. (Go Mom!), but "berk" qualifies, too, I guess!


*******
"Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.
~Dalai Lama
July 26, 2007, 11:08
arnie
quote:
abbreviation of Berkeley or Berkshire Hunt, rhyming slang

This is an interesting example. As I'm sure everyone knows, "Berkshire" is pronounced "Barkshire". You'd therefore expect berk to be pronounced "Bark", but it's not. At a guess, cockneys read of the activities of the Berkshire Hunt in the Diary columns or similar of their newspapers. Being only poor iggerant cockneys, they probably pronounced it as it was spelt.

I'd also hazard a guess that the general cockney opinion of the sort of people who made up the Berkshire Hunt was that they were a lot of berks. Oscar Wilde put it similarly, though perhaps more eloquently: "The English country gentleman galloping after a fox - The unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable."


Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
July 26, 2007, 15:27
shufitz
quote: Molly Weasley utters what I thought was the only word I'd really consider a "bad" word in the whole series when she calls someone else a Bitch. (Go Mom!), but "berk" qualifies, too, I guess!

It particularly qualifies when used with the term "orifice" -- not a typical Rowling term. The combination of the two is too striking to be a mere coincidence, with Rowling unaware of the background of "berk"; she surely knew what she was doing.
July 26, 2007, 15:35
Richard English
All I can say is "orchestras to the lot of them!".


Richard English
July 27, 2007, 13:56
wordcrafter
diadem – a jewelled crown or headband
July 28, 2007, 08:17
wordcrafter
besom1. a broom made of twigs tied round a stick 2. derog.; ch. Scot. & N.Engl.: a woman or girl

This message has been edited. Last edited by: wordcrafter,
July 29, 2007, 07:43
wordcrafter
plinth – a heavy base supporting a statue or vase [cognate with flint]
July 29, 2007, 17:44
Caterwauller
This is a very cool scene. Wouldn't it be neat to see suits of armor, long dormant on display, suddenly spring to life?


*******
"Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.
~Dalai Lama
July 30, 2007, 12:22
wordcrafter
fraught – causing or characterized by emotional distress or tension
[fraught with – filled with a specified element, as fraught with danger]
[from the sense of "laden" (as a ship); cognate with freight]