Indian summer

Meaning

An unseasonably warm, dry and calm weather, usually following a period of colder weather or frost in the late Autumn (or in the Southern hemisphere, where the term is less common, the late Spring).

Origin

The origin of other 'Indian' phrases, like Indian giver, Indian sign, are well-known as referring to North American Indians - who prefer to be called Native Americans or, in Canada, First Nations. The term Indian summer reached England in the 19th century, during the heyday of the British Raj in India. This lead to the mistaken belief that the term referred to the Indian subcontinent. In fact, the Indians in question were the Native Americans, and the term began use there in the late 18th century.

indian summerIndian summer is first recorded in Letters From an American Farmer, a 1778 work by the French-American soldier turned farmer J. H. St. John de Crèvecoeur (a.k.a. Michel-Guillaume-Jean de Crèvecoeur):

"Then a severe frost succeeds which prepares it to receive the voluminous coat of snow which is soon to follow; though it is often preceded by a short interval of smoke and mildness, called the Indian Summer."

There are many references to the term in American literature in the following hundred years or so. In the 1830s Indian summer began to be used figuratively, to refer to any late flowering following a period of decline. It was well enough established as a phrase by 1834 for John Greenleaf Whittier to use the term that way, when in his poem Memories he wrote of "The Indian Summer of the heart!". Thomas De Quincey, republished in Bentley's Works of Thomas De Quincey, 1855, wrote:

"An Indian summer crept stealthily over his closing days."

In his story The Guardian Angel, 1867, Oliver Wendell Holmes mentions "an Indian summer of serene widowhood".

The English already had names for the phenomenon - St. Luke’s Summer, St. Martin’s Summer or All-Hallown Summer, but these have now all but disappeared and, like the rest of the world, the term Indian summer has been used in the UK for at least a century.

indian summerAs a climatic event it is known throughout the world and is technically called a weather singularity, i.e. a climatic event that recurs around the same time of year. The frequency, depth and longevity of the weather pattern is clearly dependent of geography. It is most frequently associated with the eastern and central states of the USA, which have a suitable climate to generate the weather pattern, i.e. a wide variation of temperature and wind strength from summer to winter. Many of those states are also famous for their areas of hardwood forest, which show up well during Indian summers when the leaves have already begun to turn and the sun is shining.

Why Indian? Well, no one knows but, as is commonplace when no one knows, many people have guessed. Here are a few of the more commonly repeated guesses:

* When European settlers first came across the phenomenon in America it became known as the Indian's Summer.
* The haziness of the Indian Summer weather was caused by prairie fires deliberately set by Native American tribes.
* It was the period when First Nations/Native American peoples harvested their crops.
* The phenomenon was more common in what were then North American Indian territories.
* It relates to the marine shipping trade in the Indian Ocean (this is highly dubious as it is entirely remote from the early US citations).
* It originated from raids on European settlements by Indian war parties, which usually ended in autumn.
* In a parallel with other 'Indian' terms it implied a belief in Indian falsity and untrustworthiness and that an Indian summer was an ersatz copy of the real thing.

The incidence of Indian summers has increased significantly over the past decade or so (in the UK at least - I can't speak for other countries) as one symptom of the unstable weather caused by global warming. The Native Americans espoused, and lived, a life of harmony with nature that is now being put forward by supporters of Deep Green philosophy and the Gaia Theory as a solution to the world's climate problems. It is ironic and sad that they should have given their name to something that has now become associated with global warming.

www.phrases.org.uk/meanings...mmer.html

I'm wondering if there is a more PC name for this weather singularity?

It rhymes this time: Slang used at London ATMs

By RAPHAEL G. SATTER, Associated Press Writer
Mon Aug 24, 10:54 pm ET

LONDON – You'd better get ready to use your loaf if you want to get your hands on some bread.
Over the next three months a cluster of East London ATMs will be offering customers the chance to withdraw cash using written prompts in Cockney rhyming slang, the area's colorful and often impenetrable dialect.
ATMs run by a company called Bank Machine offer a language option allowing customers to enter their "Huckleberry Finn" instead of their PIN, and rather worryingly informs them that the machine is reading their "bladder of lard" at a prompt about examining their card.
The origins of Cockney rhyming slang are obscure. It is thought to have been used by market traders who needed a way of communicating without tipping off their customers.
It works by replacing a word with a short rhyming phrase. For example: "Money" becomes "bread and honey," which in turn is shortened to "bread." Similarly, "head" becomes "loaf of bread," and then just simply "loaf."
Few use the slang with any regularity now although most Britons know a few common phrases, such as "trouble and strife" for wife and "apples and pears" for stairs.
Gabriella Alexander, who made a withdrawal from an ATM, near Spitalfields Market, said the stunt was fun. But she added that that withdrawing "sausage and mash" — or cash — "made me a little uneasy."
Slaney Wright, a 32-year-old charity worker, attempted to withdraw money from the ATM but visibly tensed up when she realized the machine was talking to her in Cockney slang. She immediately canceled the transaction and ripped the card out of the machine.
"It looks like someone's been messing with it," she said.

The First "Computer Bug"

Moth found trapped between points at Relay # 70, Panel F, of the Mark II Aiken Relay Calculator while it was being tested at Harvard University, 9 September 1945. The operators affixed the moth to the computer log, with the entry: "First actual case of bug being found". They put out the word that they had "debugged" the machine, thus introducing the term "debugging a computer program".

www.history.navy.mil/photos/...66kc.htm

Reposted from:
tribes.tribe.net/triviaroc...d4de3fcd4e

Thanks, Nic !!

Decimation (Latin: decimatio; decem = "ten") was a form of military discipline used by officers in the Roman Army to punish mutinous or cowardly soldiers. The word decimation is derived from Latin meaning "removal of a tenth."

A unit selected for punishment by decimation was divided into groups of ten; each group drew lots (Sortition), and the soldier on whom the lot fell was executed by his nine comrades, often by stoning or clubbing.

Source and more en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deci...oman_army)

Okay.. so I am off to the Melbourne Cup tomorrow..

And I will have a flutter...

This means to have a bet..

According to the freedictionary..
'8. (tr) Brit informal to wager or gamble (a small amount of money)'
www.thefreedictionary.com/flutter

And most web sites say it is British in Origin..

"Flutter - I like to have a flutter on the horses. It means to have a bet, usually a small one by someone who is not a serious gambler. "
Source www.effingpot.com/slang.shtml

But also some American sites also talk about it.. on 'Commonly-Used American Slang'
"Flutter - I like to have a flutter on the horses. It means to have a bet, usually a small one by someone who is not a serious gambler. "
www.zimbio.com/member/sun...sy+Peasy+ly

The word detective takes this a step further and claims;

'But "flutter" is actually a much older word. Today we use "flutter" as a verb to mean "to move with quick, wavering or flapping movements" and as a noun to mean either the act of "fluttering" or "a commotion or state of nervous agitation," as in "The bankruptcy of K-Mart caused a flutter among manufacturers of blue light bulbs." But when "flutter" first appeared in English around 1380, it was in the form "floteren," meaning "to be tossed by the waves," derived from the Old English "flotian," meaning "to float" (which was also, not surprisingly, the root of our modern "float"). That "rocking on the waves" meaning gradually led to "flutter," by the 16th century, being used to mean "to quiver or move to and fro quickly," and birds, butterflies and nervous accountants have been "fluttering" ever since.

That "nervous" sense turns out to be the key to "flutter" as slang for "a small bet," a derivative of "flutter" meaning an exciting or daring attempt at a risky venture. The "flutter" in betting comes before the bet and refers to the excitement, even if only minor and momentary, in taking a risk. '

www.word-detective.com/061202.html

A forlorn hope is a band of soldiers or other combatants chosen to take the leading part in a military operation, such as an assault on a defended position, where the risk of casualties is high. The term comes from the Dutch verloren hoop, literally "lost heap", and adapted as "lost troop". The Dutch word hoop (in its sense of heap in English) is not cognate with English hope: this is an example of false folk etymology, supported by the word in modern Dutch also bearing the meaning "hope".

In the days of muzzle-loading muskets, it was most frequently used to refer to the first wave of soldiers attacking a breach in defences during a siege. It was likely that most members of the forlorn hope would be killed or wounded. The intention was that some would survive long enough to seize a foothold that could be reinforced, or at least that a second wave with better prospects could be sent in while the defenders were reloading or engaged in mopping up the remnants of the first wave.

A forlorn hope was typically led by a junior officer with hopes of personal advancement. If he survived, and performed courageously, he was almost guaranteed both a promotion and a long-term boost to his career prospects. As a result, despite the risks, there was often competition for the opportunity to lead the assault. The French equivalent of the forlorn hope, called Les Enfants Perdus or The Lost Children, were all guaranteed promotion to officers should they survive, so that both men and officers took up the suicidal mission as an opportunity to raise themselves in the army. By extension, the term forlorn hope became used for any body of troops placed in a hazardous position; e.g. an exposed outpost, or the defenders of an outwork in advance of the main defensive position. This usage was especially common in accounts of the English Civil War, as well as in the British Army in the Peninsular War of 1808-1814.

Source en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forlorn_hope

char / cha - tea. From Chinese cha. eg. "Oooh I'd luv a cup'a char".

Source www.londonslang.com/db/c/

'The British English slang word "char" for "tea" arose from its Mandarin Chinese pronunciation "cha" with its spelling affected by the fact that ar is a more common way of representing the phoneme /ɑː/ in British English."

Source en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea#...ha_or_chai

Meaning

Born into a wealthy family.

Origin

This is commonly thought to be an English phrase and to refer to the British aristocracy. That may well be the case, but the earliest citation in print is from the USA.

Deb. U.S. Congress, 1801:

"It was a common proverb that few lawyers were born with silver spoons in their mouths."

Mediaeval spoons were usually made of wood. Spoon was also the name of a chip or splinter of wood and it is likely that is how the table utensils derived their name. It has been a tradition in many countries for wealthy godparents to give a silver spoon to their godchildren at christening ceremonies. That may be the source of the phrase, or it may simply be derived from the fact that wealthy people ate from silver while others didn't.

Source www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/72200.html