Quickie: Who's Right?
I'm having an e-mail war with an online friend. When you see this word, what does it mean to you?
posted by lost at 3/10/2006 08:01:00 pm
I'm having an e-mail war with an online friend. When you see this word, what does it mean to you?
posted by lost at 3/10/2006 08:01:00 pm
14 Comments:
This must be a British thing, because I've never heard the term in the US.
I could go poll the Canadian in the office who's been arguing all morning that chesterfield = couch, but if it's not in google, I doubt she's heard it either.
J.
3/10/2006 10:52:00 pm
From Webster's online dictionary:
hawkshaw
One entry found for hawkshaw.
Main Entry: hawk·shaw
Pronunciation: 'hok-"sho
Function: noun
Etymology: from Hawkshaw, detective in the play The Ticket of Leave Man (1863) by Tom Taylor
: DETECTIVE
And from Dictionary.com
hawkshaw
n : someone who is a detective [syn: dick, gumshoe]
Does that help?
3/10/2006 11:14:00 pm
Means absolutely nothing to me.
3/11/2006 01:26:00 am
Jen - yeah, a Chesterfield is a leather settee. Google wasn't much of help, surprisingly.
AngieW - bless you! That's exactly how I understood 'hawkshaw'! I didn't realise that it's a British thing, though. For some reason I had it in my head that it was an Americanism, along the line of Bonesaws [Sawbones?]. Thanks for coming up with that! :D Now I can go to my grave with my brow unburrowed. :>
Nicole - you and the rest of the world, it seems. :P
Is it me or is blogger.com slow tonight?
3/11/2006 01:41:00 am
Hawkshaw- I'm clueless. Chesterfield- cigarettes.
Sawbones- American West
3/11/2006 02:02:00 am
Never heard of it before. I'm not convinced it is a British thing either, having spent some time there in the past.
3/11/2006 02:59:00 am
A chesterfield in Canada means a couch - leather or otherwise. You all have heard of a loveseat right?
I thought you were confusing hawkshaw with hacksaw and was going to tell you it is a special saw.
Amanda - cigarettes used to be fags and are sometimes still refer to that way. Now they are refered to as smokes. Is Chesterfield a name brand of cigarettes?
CindyS
3/11/2006 03:45:00 am
It's funny isn't it when you find a word you just figures everyone knows. The same thing happened to me a while ago when I mentioned pablum to Jay. I was astonished she had never heard of it before. I thought everyone had heard of that.
And yep - I noticed blogger is slow tonight too.
Oh - and never heard of hawkshaw either
3/11/2006 03:56:00 am
pablum? What's that?
3/11/2006 02:25:00 pm
Pablum is infant cereal.
Chesterfield is a brand of cigarettes.
3/11/2006 02:37:00 pm
Pablum has also come to mean (or so I thought it) something very bland
From Wikepedia:In lower case, the word pablum is often used to indicate anything bland or oversimplified, especially a work of literature or speech. This usage predates the invention of the cereal. In Canada, "pablum" remains as a generic reference to any instant baby cereal.
3/11/2006 06:36:00 pm
Marg - I picked up 'Hawkshaw' during my childhood here in the UK, but not so much during my adulthood.
CindyS - in the UK, 'Chesterfield' isn't a generic term for a couch. Here is an example of a Chesterfield.
Kristie J - yes! it took me a while to realise not everyone understands some regionalisms I use in my everyday speech, including 'outwith' ['beyond' or 'outside boundaries'], 'uplift' [pick up'] and many more. I've learnt enough to keep them out of this blog and elsewhere. :>
3/11/2006 08:39:00 pm
now sawbones I knew :-)
eh...it's always interesting to learn new words that one wouldn't ordinarily come into contact with. I always enjoy it, anyways.
3/11/2006 08:43:00 pm
Like oh...in the Midwest, goulash (just learned this one for Iowa), hotdish and casserole can all mean the same thing.
3/11/2006 08:44:00 pm
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