Dspencerluton's Blog

“bench-clearing brawl” and other sports terms

dspencerluton — Tue, 05 May 2009 09:09:39 +0000

Hello friends,

I’d like to return again to the theme of sports, which is ironic since I’m not much of a sports fan. However, I recognize that sports are an important part of our culture, so it’s hard not to be aware of certain terms or expressions which are commonly used. The term “bench-clearing brawl” is one that I usually associate with baseball, although I suppose that it can also be used in basketball and other sports. It refers to a fight, which may have originated between only two players of opposite teams, in which all the players of both teams (also sometimes including coaches and fans) participate. The term “bench” refers to where the players of most team sports sit (in baseball the bench is found inside the little shelter which is called a “dug-out”). The adjective “bench-clearing” refers to the fact that all the players and sometimes coaches leave (clear) the bench to participate in the fight (in all fairness, some may actually be trying to break it up!). Even though fights during baseball games are common, in the U.S., we often often associate fighting with hockey. As an example of this, the famous American comedian, Rodney Dangerfield (whose slogan was “I get no respect!”) said in one of his monologues:

“I get no respect! One time I went to a fight (i.e. boxing match), and a hockey game broke out!”

Many Americans like myself see humor in that, as it’s stereotypical that during a hockey game a fight is likely to break out.

Another expression related to sports fights which is peculiar to baseball is “charge the mound”. This refers to when a batter (usually angered by being hit by a pitch, especially if this happens more than once) runs toward (i.e. charges) the pitcher to engage in a fist fight (the area where the pitcher stands is referred to as the “pitcher’s mound”).

Another common sports term is “bench-warmer”. This refers to a person who “warms the bench” (i.e. sits on the sidelines because the coach doesn’t consider him or her talented enough to play) to so speak. I tend to associate this term with basketball, although I think this could be used with any sport (i.e. where there are extra players who are used only in cases of emergency).

I welcome input from all my friends from the U.S., U.K. and other countries regarding these terms and expressions or others that you would like to mention.

Baseball or cricket, anyone?

dspencerluton — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 07:29:30 +0000

Here is some interesting information that I found from the book Divided by a Common Language: A Guide to British and American English by Christopher Davies (1997, Houghton Mifflin, pgs. 125-126):

“Americans often use sports terms in conversations. One sport from which a lot of terms are borrowed is baseball, which, by the way, evolved from the British game called rounders.”

a ballpark figure (a rough estimate)
a tough call (a difficult decision)
The bases are loaded. (It’s a make-or-break decision.)
batting a thousand (going great guns)
batting zero (getting nowhere)
cover all bases (take care of everything)
didn’t get to first base (didn’t accomplish anything)
go to bat for someone (be someone’s advocate)
be off-base (hold a mistaken idea)
out in left field (off track)
screwball (eccentric or irrational person)
step up to the plate (make a stand)
strike out (fail)
throw someone a curve[ball] (bowl someone a googly)
touch base (get in touch with someone)
whole new ball game (completely different situation)
You’re up./You’re at bat. (It’s your turn)

I’ve also learned that the British have some expressions that come from the sport cricket. Here are a few which I gleened from different sources:

knocked for six - thrown for a loop
to bowl someone a googly – to throw someone a curve(ball)
on a good wicket – in a good position
on a sticky wicket – in a bad position or difficult situation
not batting on a full wicket – to not be playing with a full deck
Well bowled! - Well done!

I welcome comments from my American and British friends, and please let me know if you have any more expressions that I’ve omitted.

The “in suspension” problem resolved for now

dspencerluton — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 09:57:44 +0000

Dear friends,
Since no one responded to my blog query regarding the meaning of the phrase”You’re in suspension.” from the Sex Pistols song “Liar”, I decided to put the question on Yahoo Answers UK, and I received the following two responses which I found to be helpful:

“Unfortunately the Sex Pistols often wrote lyrics that made no sense whatsoever. ‘You’re in suspension’ means nothing in the UK either.”

“…it is an ungrammatical way of saying ‘you are in a period of suspension’, ie if you lie again you will face the implied consequences (just like the sentence from a legal conviction can be suspended until a repeat offence). However, I expect for a group like the Sex Pistols, we are over-analysing them.”

I am grateful for this input, and for the time being I consider the matter concluded. Even so, if any of my friends from the UK would like to comment regarding this, I would be glad to hear from you.

I’m no dog’s body!

dspencerluton — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 18:45:45 +0000

Hello all!
Here’s another example of a term that’s only used in the UK. I also found this quote in a song by the Sex Pistols (Anarchy in the U.K.).
A dog’s body in American parlance is gofer. This word is pronounced the same as the word gopher (a rodent), but is spelled with an f because it really means go for (i.e. the errand boy who goes here and there doing your errands and who remains at your beckon call, as we say).

Which came first, the chicken…?

dspencerluton — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 08:33:36 +0000

Or the egg? Yes, we say this in the States. Do you also say it in the UK? You see, that is precisely my dilemna: I simply don’t know. And not only do I not know which expressions and sayings are also used in the UK, I also can’t be sure where they originated. Forgive me for sounding like the former U.S. defense minister Donald Rumsfeld who amazed the English-speaking world (I wouldn’t be surprised if even certain unnamed persons in Buckingham Palace changed their stoic never-changing facial expressions for one of surprise, utter bewilderment or even amusement!) with his deeply philosophical declaration: “There are things that we don’t know, that we know we don’t know, and things that we don’t know that we don’t know that we don’t know…” Anyway, back to my point. I recently published a book (El inglés correcto e informal: Un glosario estadounidense, David S. Luton, 2008) which is intended for Spanish-speaking people who are learning English and whose title translates in English: Proper and Informal English: An American Glossary. Actually, the Spanish word that I used which translates American (estadounidense) literally means pertaining to the United States (i.e. excluding Canada) because the book contains a chapter on American slang, informal speech, idioms and other various terms of cultural importance (like Americana and Dixie, and even British terms such as Union Jack and John Bull since I also mentioned the American equivalents: Old Glory and Uncle Sam; I also included words like the verb cherish which is neither informal nor exclusive to the US, but which I considered an important verb which has no exact Spanish equivalent). I made a point of stating in that chapter’s introduction that many of these words, terms and expressions are also used in the UK and other English-speaking countries;however, I used the word estadounidense because I could only be sure that all of them were used (or at least understood in the U.S.). That is to say, I have no way of knowing which ones are also used or at least understand in the UK or Canada or Australia, etc. Of course, I suppose that there are also situations where two countries use the same expression, but with slightly different wording (for example Americans say “Knock on wood.” and I believe the British say “Touch wood.”, i.e. for good luck). I also have a great interest in traditional children songs and nursery rhymes (children poems, the most famous being Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes). I was amazed to find out via my internet research that the famous “Ring around the Rosies” nursery rhyme (that’s how we call it in the States, I believe that in the UK they call it “Ring a Ring o’ Roses” or something similar) has different variations in almost every English-speaking country (i.e. Canada’s version is slightly different from ours which is slightly different from Australia’s which is slightly different from the UK’s, etc.). I also found it interesting that the traditional Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes in US have slightly different wording from the modern version used by children in the US (including the versions that I used as a child in the 70′s). So I ended up buying two different books of Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes: one which contained the poems in their traditional American form which I believe date to the 19th century or possibly even the 18th century, and another which contains more modern versions of the same. My belief is that the wording of the tradional Mother Goose nursery rhymes in the US are probably very similar to the wording of the same in the UK (but I have never verified this, and I suppose that the wording has possibly changed somewhat in the UK, but I can’t be sure; for that reason I welcome the input of my British friends concerning this!). I suppose that there are persons who have already done extensive research regarding which slang words and idioms are used in common amongst English-speaking countries and which one’s are unique to certain countries, and my hat would certainly be off to that person or persons (another expression that we use!). I assume that many informal words, expressions and idioms used in the US (possibly including the one I just used) have their origins in the UK. However, I also recognize that many Americanisms have found their way into the UK (I recently read a blog from someone from the UK who was complaining about this trend). In closing, I will give one example. In the US, we have a saying: The proof is in the pudding. This is one that I would assume has its origin in the UK (but how do I really know that it didn’t come from Canada or Australia or even originate in the US?). I believe that there are books and websites available to answer such doubts. If only I had the time to read them!

Anyway, as always, I welcome comments and input from my friends from all over the world regarding this topic.

Words Like “Fortnight”

dspencerluton — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 06:02:02 +0000

The word “fortnight” (another way of saying two weeks or 14 days) is an example of a word which was previously used in the US, but which has fallen into disuse, even though it is still commonly used in the UK. I had some doubts regarding the word “trousers” which is British parlance for what we call “pants” (a fact which the British may find amusing since pants are only worn in public by drunken hooligans or in those strange recurring dreams that some people have!), because I wasn’t sure if that term was ever used in the US. From what I was able to gather from my research, the words trousers and pantaloons (the latter coming to English from Italian by way of French) briefly co-existed in the US during the 19th century; however, the former quickly fell into disuse in America in favor of the latter which was eventually shortenened to pants. Apparently, the first American writer to use the word pants (in the American sense of the word) was Edgar Allen Poe. Even so, most Americans (at least of my generation, I can’t be sure concerning the young people of the 21st century!) know what the word trousers means, even if we never use it. Apparently, Mick Jagger was confident of this, when in 1969 he said to his audience in New York, “I think I’ve just busted a button of my trousers. I hope they don’t fall down. You don’t want my trousers to fall down now, do ya?!”
In like manner, some words which are still commonly used in the US have fallen into disuse in the UK (for example, the word fall [meaning autumn] according to Christopher Davies in his book Divided by a Common Language: A Guide to British and American English, Houghton Mifflin, 1997, p.3).
I welcome comments and input from my American and British friends regarding this topic. Please also let me know if you can think of more examples of other words which have fallen into to disuse either in the US or in the UK.

How was your journey? or How was your trip?

dspencerluton — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 09:06:30 +0000

Which one of these questions would you use? Well, it probably depends on from which side of the Atlantic Ocean you are speaking. I was recently viewing a dvd from an EFL course in which a man from the UK asked a man from Japan who had just arrived to his city by plane “How was your journey?”. Up until that time I wasn’t aware that people in the UK used the word “journey” in such contexts, because in the States, we would normally say “How was your trip?”. So I decided to do some research. According to Michael Swan in his book Practical English Usage (2005, Oxford Press p. 536), people in the UK normally use either journey or trip in such a context whereas Americans generally only use the word trip. He also said the following, “A journey is one ‘piece’ of travelling. A trip is a return journey together with the activity which is the reason for the journey” (p.590).
So I understand that the British make a distinction between the two words which is somewhat different from the distinction that we make in the States. For us (in my opinion), the distinction is that the word journey is more formal and literary, so for that reason we generally would not say to someone “How was your journey?”. However, at the same time, we might refer to a person’s “spiritual journey” (more literary), but never his/her “spiritual trip” (but if we were in the hippy era we could say his/her LSD “trip”, but I digresss!).
I welcome comments from my friends from the US and the UK (and other countries) regarding this topic. I would especially like to know if in any part of the US anyone would ever say “How was your journey?”

Do the younger generations still use “shan’t”?

dspencerluton — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 15:28:28 +0000

Hello all! My latest query is regarding the verb form “shan’t” (i.e. the contracted form of “shall not”). I was wondering if this combined form is still commonly used in the U.K., or is it rather something that has to do with a more formal type of English or perhaps something used more by the older generations?
As an American, I remember first taking notice of this word when I was 18 years old in 1982 when I heard Margaret Thatcher use it while addressing the parliament (or in some other public forum). This was during the time of the Falkland Islands War, and her comment was something like (i.e. not the exact words) “The people in the Falkland Islands wish to remain British, and we shan’t turn our backs on them!” (or something to that effect). That word “shan’t” really caught my attention because I realized that Americans never use that contracted form. In fact, we rarely use “shall” at all. We rarely, if ever, use “shall” or “shall not” to speak about the future; however, we do occasionally use “shall” (but not “shall not”/”shan’t”) to make a suggestion (e.g. Shall we go now? Or Shall we sit here?), but mainly with the pronoun “we”, we say “Shall I…?” much less to make suggestions, if even at all.
Americans also rarely if ever you the negative contracted forms “mustn’t” and “needn’t”, although we do occasionally use the normal form “must not” (but only to speak of probability and not prohibition the way the British use it). For example:

You mustn’t run in the house. (a prohibition – strictly British usage)
He’s not answering the door. He must not be home. (probability – American and British usage, perhaps somewhat less so for the British)

Even though we hardly ever use the negative contracted form “needn’t”, we do occasionally use the regular form “need not” (e.g. You need not worry!”)

I will also point out, that we do use “must” affirmatively to speak of obligations, the same as the British (e.g. “You really must get out more!” Or “ You must do your homework before you can watch tv!”), although we tend to prefer the “have to” construction (.e.g. You have to do your homework…)

Thanks, mate!

dspencerluton — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 09:01:15 +0000

My doubts regarding the words “cupboard” and “plaster” have been resolved thanks to Matt, my friend from London (and my authority on “all things English”). Here is the verdict: Cupboards can indeed be found anywhere in a British home, and the thing people use for healing broken bones is called a “plastercast”, usually shortened to “cast” (as we also say in the States).