By enlarge

[Aleveldilemma]

This is a new one to me. Saw it on a thread earlier.

I knew the usage of "by and large" as in mostly. But for me it was an unexamined idiom, a surface knowledge with no depth of reason. I had to look up the reason why "by and large" could possibly be used in that sense.
"By and large is a nautical term from the late 17th century, which stems from the practice of sailing by (which means close to the line of the wind) or sailing large (which means with the wind on the quarter). These sailing techniques were sufficient to keep the ship heading in approximately the right direction, but they were not very accurate."

🤮

And to be fair, he was a truly nasty character!

A long time ago, I used to work for a catering company that had outlets in lots of public facilities and institutions, and they had a brand of hospital cafe which they named 'Rest Bite'.

I never did find out if the name was chosen by a secret MNer of this parish board, hugging themselves with glee, or somebody who genuinely thought that was the actual phrase?!

The Estuary accent is interesting. No matter how many times I watch The Apprentice, I still find myself momentarily puzzled as to why Alan is trying to encourage the teams to get as many female pigs as possible!

Plain clothed policeman?

I’ve just seen ‘your’s’ instead of ‘yours’, which I suppose is correct usage of an apostrophe to denote ownership, but still wrong!

This one might seem a weird connection, but it's what 'by enlarge' makes me think of. We go to Norfolk a lot, and the number of tacky gift shops that have signs for sale that make a rude pun using the word 'Norfolk' is very high. It's also popular as a 'hilarious' yet deeply unoriginal pub quiz team name.

Alongside the witty ones that say 'Norfolk and good' (which I read as shorthand for saying 'I'm Norfolk-born and very happy about it), the majority say 'Norfolk in chance' or 'Norfolk 'n' chance', which isn't a rude pun at all; it's just completely nonsensical - the adult equivalent of pre-schoolers finding it eternally amusing to just randomly shout "Poo!!!!" devoid of any context.

The most irritating thing is that 'Norfolk enchants' would make the absolutely perfect clever pun (and also be a true statement imho!), and is surely right there in your face, just waiting to be made... but I have never, ever seen this on a sign, tea-towel or other souvenir anywhere.

@BrezhnevsLuxuriantEyebrows you should create a range. I love that!

It has taken me all day to figure out what you meant! Obvious once you ‘hear’ it exactly as he says it. 🤦‍♀️

I won’t ruin it for anyone else.

This accent is why I didn’t know a childhood friend’s surname for years until I saw it written down; Paulman/Poolman/Pullman all mangled by Estuary English to sound the same.

I can't get the female pigs reference - sows presumably? But if so, I can't think what it could be 🤔

There's a Radio quiz called Couch Potatoes which sounds like Catch Tay'as in Estuary English

I do worry about shoddy subtitles being the majority of the words some people see.

But social media is bringing us some apt new words as well -

@iloveanearlynightand @Idontjetwashthefucker thank you. 😳 I’m shocked! (Shook as they say nowadays)

The way he says 'sales' sounds exactly the same as most people say 'sows' (as in pigs, not somebody spreading seeds).

They also had a task once involving the teams making and selling bao buns, and he elongated the word in a way that made it sound more like he was saying 'bowel buns' ! <boak>

I've heard Gary Davies saying Déjà Wooooo

My ‘favourites’
‘the top run of the ladder ‘
’Thats paramount to fraud !!’

or another …

’Shes on tender hooks !’

My favourite lately is everyone being "dissolutioned", eg "I'm dissolutioned with the Labour party".

I wonder if they think it's cognate with solution, like "I no longer think Labour has the solutions, I'm dissolutioned".

I love it because it works, it's so wrong it's right. It's like an abstract version of the rest bite and the dire rear.

It can feel spooky, so he could do worse.

I recently saw a self-congratulatory comment that ended, "...and viola!" It may well have been an autocorrect but it's my new favourite phrase. "My bedroom was very messy so I spent an hour tidying and now....viola!" 🎻

Don't a lot of people deliberately use that ironically now, though, because of the number of people who have used it unwittingly and assuming that was the correct word?

A bit like when people who used to watch Only Fools & Horses will affectionately use Del-Boyisms, like "Mange tout!" to mean don't worry about it, or "The world is your lobster!"

Of course, it then all blurs when people who aren't using it ironically hear those who are, and thus they go on to use it, believing it to be correct!

I once had a pupil write phonetically in her story ... 'Susan cunt beleev it'

Another pearl I saw today:

’This is a seminar moment’

hmm

Sorry if this has appeared already, but I've seen quite a few posts 'towing the line' recently.

Puts me in mind of a trawler somehow...

I've just come across "draw dropping" out in the MN wild. I assume they actually wanted to drop their jaw.

I'm not even a Londoner, and I say Platty Jubes. I think it sounds cute. 😆

By enlarge is appalling. 😂

'Or Sank' - for 'or something' and 'The Devil In Garnet' for 'The Devil Incarnate' are brilliant.

😆