While we in the US use this expression as a euphamism for vomiting loudly, it doesn't work with the rarer UK pronunciation, Raif. How did the latter evolve? are the two parallel developments?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Geoff,

Geoff, how do you use "Ralph?"

And l in words, especially after a vowel and before a consonant, has a way of disappearing. For example, I do not pronounce the l in almond. Anyway, names are a special case when it comes to pronunciations. I have a friend, Ralf, in Germany (no actually he's been living in Madrid for a while) and the dialectal pronunication of Ralf is to insert a schwa between the l and the f.

Okay. I looked it up and see that it means vomit. Not to me; while I know a whole lot of words for vomit, ralph is not one of them.

while I know a whole lot of words for vomit, ralph is not one of them.

It might be a generational thing. ralph as a verb has always meant the Technicolor yawn, the round-trip lunch ticket, &c., to me and my cohorts.

Z, Ive known Germanic and Scandanavian men named either Rolf or Ralf. Variations on the same name, I asume? I've known a Bavarian Rolf and a Swedish Ralf, but isn't the opposite more common?

Ive known Germanic and Scandanavian men named either Rolf or Ralf. Variations on the same name, I asume? I've known a Bavarian Rolf and a Swedish Ralf, but isn't the opposite more common?

From the Old Icelandic Raðulfr < rað 'counsel' + ulfr 'wolf"'. The form I've usually seen in German is Ralf.

I've never heard of the "vomit" use. Over here the "raif" pronunciation is rare, and restricted to upper-class twit-types.

quote:

Originally posted by arnie:
Over here the "raif" pronunciation is rare, and restricted to upper-class twit-types.

Oh, well, I still like Mr. Vaughn Williams' music, twit or no.

quote:

Originally posted by arnie:
I've never heard of the "vomit" use. Over here the "raif" pronunciation is rare, and restricted to upper-class twit-types.

Really? I thought it was reasonably well known here. I've heard at least a few comedians use the longer "calling ralph on the big white telephone" version.

quote:

I've heard at least a few comedians use the longer "calling ralph on the big white telephone" version.

I've heard them say "calling ... on the big white telephone", but never noticed the name.

I just realized that I misunderstood the idiom under discussion here. For me, ralph[/o], is a simple verb. For example, "Did you hear? John ralphed on the train going home yesterday." I'd under stand the [i]calling Ralph idiom, but had not heard it before.

Not quite to the point, but I was surprised to learn that the word katzenjammer, from the ancient comic strip, came to be used to describe the headache one has from a hangover. Isn't that odd?

clearly German, I wonder if it's connected to the German der Kater - slang for hangover.

Here is another discussion about katzenjammer here.

I was surprised to learn that the word katzenjammer, from the ancient comic strip, came to be used to describe the headache one has from a hangover. Isn't that odd?

I'd be surprised if it were not the other way around: the Kids were named after the German slang term for 'hangover'. Literally, Katzenjammer means 'caterwaul'.

A long since deceased German American friend used to refer to his noisy children as jammerkatzen.