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Vodka vocabulary |
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False friends |
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Under the monkey |
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The morning after |
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Dont cry over spilt milk |
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16 All in a Days Work |
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Point blank |
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Dodo |
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Eel dribbling |
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Angel makers |
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False friends |
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Hippopotomonstrosesquipedalianism |
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Horn diggers |
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Mice milkers |
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Jobsworth |
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Promises promises |
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Counting the stars |
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Sell out |
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Bad workman blames his tools |
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17 Game Theory |
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Slow start |
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False friends |
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Aggro |
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The sound of your heart racing |
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Taking a dip |
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Dizzy dancing |
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Suits and tricks |
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One is fun |
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Drooping tongue |
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Staying up |
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18 Animal Magic |
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The great rat with a pocket |
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Fluttering and kicking |
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Scratch chew tear beat |
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Wriggle wriggle |
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Tucked away |
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Wa |
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Commanding |
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Aw aw |
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How to count on your chickens |
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Roofgutter rabbit |
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Moo |
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Flying low |
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19 Climate Change |
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Suns up |
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Heat haze |
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False friends |
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In a flood |
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You fish on your side |
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Coucher de soleil |
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Its raining cats and dogs |
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20 The Root of All Evil |
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Cutting gold |
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Gifted |
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Its the thought that counts |
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False friends |
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Stall |
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Red shells out white shells back |
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Onearmed bandit |
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Retail therapy |
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As easy as falling off a log |
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21 The Criminal Life |
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False friends |
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Lost in translation |
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Kindling |
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Descending spiders |
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Radish with glasses |
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When crimes go wrong |
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Pig box |
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As thick as thieves |
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22 Realpolitik |
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A gift |
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Changing shirts |
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Muffled |
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Tail between legs |
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Talk box |
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War elephants |
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Heroes |
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War trophies |
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Something is rotten in the state of Denmark |
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23 From Better to Hearse |
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Peaky |
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Sweating carrots |
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Docteur docteur |
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Hex |
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Corpse in the middle |
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Curtains |
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A thousand cuts |
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Stiff |
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Feet first |
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Funeral crashers |
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Hex revenge |
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24 The Great Beyond |
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Just a jealous guy |
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Holy cockerel |
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Broken sewing needles |
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On a hedgehogs back |
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Charismatic |
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Whistling in the wind |
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The crystal ball |
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When pigs fly |
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The Wonder of Whiffling |
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DOG AND BONE |
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SNAIL MAIL |
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GR8 |
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A LITTLE SOMETHING |
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DIGNITY AND PRIDE |
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ALL RIGHT MATE? |
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SMOOTH CUSTOMER |
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CLEVER CLOGS |
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MANNER OF SPEAKING |
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WORD JOURNEYS |
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STICKYBEAK Character |
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LOOSE KANGAROOS |
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MEN OF STRAW |
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TWO GENTLEMEN |
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YUPPIES |
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REGULAR GUY |
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WORD JOURNEYS |
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GOING POSTALEmotions |
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JESUS WEPT |
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BRING ME SUNSHINE |
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HA HA BONK |
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WORD JOURNEYS |
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TWIDDLEDIDDLES Body language |
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MODEL FIGURES |
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NIP AND TUCK |
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FACE FUNGUS |
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SNIFFER |
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PEEPERS |
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GNASHERS |
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BOTTLING IT |
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SINISTER |
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JOHN THOMAS |
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LEGS ELEVEN |
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PRICKMEDAINTY Clothes |
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SKIMPIES |
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TREWS |
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KITTED OUT |
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REBELS IN BOATERS |
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TOPPING |
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GOING WEST Illness death and spiritual matters |
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ELF WARNING |
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DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE |
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GOD KNOWS |
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LAST WORDS |
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DEATH BY HONEY |
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DUST TO DUST |
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ELYSIAN FIELDS |
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GODS IN HIS HEAVEN |
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THE UNCERTAIN FUTURE |
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SLAPSAUCE Food |
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KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL |
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GIVE AND TAKE AND EAT IT RHYMING SLANG |
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PLUS ONE |
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POSTPRANDIAL |
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WORD JOURNEYS |
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CRAMBAZZLEDDrink |
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MINES A NIPPITATUM |
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ON THE NAIL |
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LAST GASPER |
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SPEAKEASY |
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TWO TOO MANY |
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WORD JOURNEYS |
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FOOTERFOOTERTaking off |
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BONEBREAKER |
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GO CART |
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TICKET TO RIDE |
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GRICERS DAUGHTER |
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ELSEWHERE |
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MUTTONERS AND |
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SECONDS AWAY |
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OVER AND OUT |
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TOUCHÉ |
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TOUR DE FRANCE |
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COLORADO CLIFFHANGER |
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WORD JOURNEYS |
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RUBBYDUBBY Country pursuits |
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TALLY HO |
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GAME ON |
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GETTING HOOKED |
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GIFT HORSES |
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ODDS ON |
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VERY GOOD GOING |
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MADHOUSE Indoor games and hobbies |
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DICEMAN |
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FEVVERS |
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POKER FACE |
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FULL HOUSE |
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HIGH STAKES |
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MONTE CARLO OR BUST |
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ANORAKS |
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WORD JOURNEYS |
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MUSH FAKERS AND |
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COLOUR CODED |
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ELBOW GREASE |
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BRAINSTORMING |
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PUSHING THE ENVELOPE |
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THANK GOD ITS FRIDAY OFFICE ACRONYMS |
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ROOM AT THE TOP |
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THE SACK |
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MY OLD MANS A |
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WIDOWS AND ORPHANS |
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THE READIES |
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WORD JOURNEYS |
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BULK AND FILE Crime and punishment |
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MY DEAR FELLOW |
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NOT QUITE MY COLOUR |
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PANHANDLER |
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ARTFUL DODGERS |
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OLD BILL |
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BAD APPLES |
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PETTIFOGGERS |
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PORRIDGE |
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CLEAN SHIRT |
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WORD JOURNEYS |
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BUNTING TIME Matters of love |
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ZEPPELINS |
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HUNTER DITHERERS |
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DELIGHTFUL |
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CHEAP DATE |
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COUNTRY LOVING |
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ALL LOVED UP |
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DROIT DE SEIGNEUR |
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WORD JOURNEYS |
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WITTOLS AND |
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IN THE PAPERS |
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VIRAGO |
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UP THE DUFF |
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PRIVATE VIEWS |
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CHIPS OFF THE OLD BLOCK |
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EARLY PROMISE |
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COLTISH |
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MANNERS MAKYTH MAN |
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JUST MISSED A GEOFF |
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WORD JOURNEYS |
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OYSTER PARTS Culture |
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PENMEN |
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ARE YOU WORKING? |
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AGAIN FROM THE TOP |
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LIGHTS UP |
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BUMS ON SEATS |
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MORE WHIFFLE |
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ROCK FOLLIES |
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WORD JOURNEYS |
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DIMBOX AND |
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GOING REGIMENTAL |
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YELLOWBELLY |
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WEIGHING ANCHOR |
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SHOCK AND AWE |
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PANCAKE SERVICES WATCHWORDS |
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POLITICOS |
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TWO CHEERS FOR DEMOCRACY |
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WORD JOURNEYS |
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SCURRYFUNGE Domestic life |
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BRIGHT LIGHTS |
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SOILED BY ASSOCIATION |
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HOUSEPROUD |
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HOUSEWARMING |
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THE THREE NIGHT RULE |
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BEDDYBYES |
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AW WHOOP Animals |
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PRANCERS AND DOBBINS |
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LAND OF THE LONG WHITE FLEECE |
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FOWL PLAY |
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GREAT AND SMALL |
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YELLS BELLS |
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PEN AND INK |
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RSPCA |
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SWALLOCKY Rural life and weather |
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FIGHTING FOR THE CLAICK |
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GREEN FINGERS |
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BOSKY |
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THE RAIN IT RAINETH EVERYDAY |
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BLOWN AWAY |
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SNOW ON THE LINE |
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WORD JOURNEYS |
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FEELIMAGEERIES Paraphernalia |
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ROUGHLY SPEAKING |
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COUNTING SHEEP |
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WHO WANTS TO BE A VIGINTILLIONAIRE? |
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YOUR NUMBERS UP |
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PALINDROMES |
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TINCTURE |
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UP BETIMES |
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THINGUMMY |
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WORD JOURNEYS |
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Авторские права |
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PENGUIN BOOKS
I NEVER KNEW THERE WAS A WORD FOR IT
Adam Jacot de Boinod, hunter of perfect and obscure bon mots, is a true linguistic bowerbird (a person who collects an astonishing array of – sometimes useless – objects). He trawled the languages of the world for exotic specimens in his bestselling books The Wonder of Whiffling, The Meaning of Tingo and hit follow-up Toujours Tingo.
In memory of my father
I Never Knew There
Was a Word For It
ADAM JACOT DE BOINOD
With illustrations by Sandra Howgate
PENGUIN BOOKS
PENGUIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
Penguin Group (USA), Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3
(a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)
Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia
(a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)
Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi – 110 017, India
Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand
(a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)
Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
www.penguin.com
The Meaning of Tingo first published in Penguin Books 2005
Toujours Tingo first published in Penguin Books 2007
The Wonder of Whiffling first published in Particular Books 2009
Published under this title with a new Introduction in Penguin Books 2010
Copyright © Adam Jacot de Boinod, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010
Illustrations copyright © Samantha Howland, 2005, 2007, 2009
The moral right of the author has been asserted
All rights reserved
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-0-14-196353-2
Contents
Introduction
Acknowledgements
The Meaning of Tingo
Meeting and Greeting
From Top to Toe
Movers and Shakers
Getting Around
It Takes All Sorts
Falling in Love
The Family Circle
Clocking On
Time Off
Eating and Drinking
Below Par
From Cradle to Grave
Otherworldly
All Creatures Great and Small
Whatever the Weather
Hearing Things
Seeing Things
Number Crunching
What’s in a Name?
Toujours Tingo
Getting Acquainted
The Human Condition
Emotional Intelligence
Social Animals
Having an Argument
The Rules of Attraction
Family Ties
Kids
Body Beautiful
Dressed to Kill
Stretching Your Legs
Upping Sticks
Home Sweet Home
Dinner Time
One for the Road
All in a Day’s Work
Game Theory
Animal Magic
Climate Change
The Root of All Evil
The Criminal Life
Realpolitik
From Better to Hearse
The Great Beyond
The Wonder of Whiffling
Clatterfarts and Jaisies
Stickybeak
Going Postal
Twiddle-diddles
Prick-me-dainty
Going West
Slapsauce
Crambazzled
Footer-footer
Muttoners and Golden Ferrets
Rubby-dubby
Madhouse
Mush Fakers and Applesquires
Bulk and File
Bunting Time
Wittols and Beer Babies
Oyster Parts
Dimbox and Quockerwodger
Scurryfunge
Aw Whoop
Swallocky
Feelimageeries
Introduction
My name is Adam Jacot de Boinod and I’m hopelessly addicted to strange words. I’ve spent the last six years compulsively hunting down unusual vocabulary and now have written three books collecting my very best and most unusual discoveries.
All three are included in this volume, which I’ve called I Never Knew There Was a Word For It, because I didn’t. My vocabulary is now ten times richer than it was six years ago, as I hope yours will soon be too … Let me tell you a little about each book:
The Meaning of Tingo
My interest in unusual words was triggered when one day, working as a researcher for the BBC programme QI, I picked up a weighty Albanian dictionary to discover that they have no less than twenty-seven words for eyebrow and the same number for different types of moustache, ranging from a mustaqe madh, or bushy, to a mustaqe posht, one which droops down at both ends.
My curiosity rapidly became a passion. I was soon unable to go near a bookshop or library without sniffing out the often dusty shelf where the foreign language dictionaries were kept. I started to collect my favourites: nakhur, for example, a Persian word meaning ‘a camel that gives no milk until her nostrils are tickled’; Many described strange or unbelievable things. How, when and where, for example, would a man be described as a marilopotes, the Ancient Greek for ‘a gulper of coaldust’? And could the Japanese samurai really have used the verb tsuji-giri, meaning ‘to try out a new sword on a passerby’? Others expressed concepts that seemed all too familiar. We have all met a Zechpreller, ‘someone who leaves without paying the bill’; worked with a neko-neko, the Indonesian for ‘one who has a creative idea which only makes things worse’; or spent too much time with an ataoso, the Central American Spanish for ‘one who sees problems with everything’. It was fascinating to find thoughts that lie on the tip of an English tongue, crystallized into vocabulary. From the Zambian sekaseka, ‘to laugh without reason’, through the Czech nedovtipa, ‘one who finds it difficult to take a hint’, to the Japanese bakku-shan, ‘a woman who only appears pretty when seen from behind’.
In the end my passion became an obsession. I combed over two million words in countless dictionaries. I trawled the internet, phoned embassies, and tracked down foreign language speakers who could confirm my findings. I discovered that in Afrikaans, frogs go kwaak-kwaak, in Korea owls go buung-buung, while in Denmark Rice Crispies go Knisper! Knasper! Knupser! And that in Easter Island tingo means to borrow things from a friend’s house one by one until there’s nothing left.
Luckily for my sanity, Penguin then signed me up to write the book that was to become The Meaning of Tingo, which meant I had an editor to help me decide which of the thousands of great words should make it into the final
book but, goodness, it was hard to leave some out. The book came out in 2005 and was an instant hit. It has since been published in eleven different languages and Tingomania spread all round the globe.
Toujours Tingo
I was delighted when the book’s fans demanded a sequel as I felt like I was only just getting started. This time I found such delights as okuri-okami, the Japanese word for ‘a man who feigns thoughtfulness by offering to see a girl home only to molest her once he gets in the door’ (literally, ‘a see-you-home wolf’); kaelling, the Danish for ‘a woman who stands on the steps of her house yelling obscenities at her kids’; and belochnik, the Russian for ‘a thief specializing in stealing linen off clothes lines’ (an activity that was supposedly very lucrative in the early 1980s). And how could I have missed the German Kiebitz, ‘an onlooker at a card game who interferes with unwanted advice’ or the Portuguese pesamenteiro, ‘one who habitually joins groups of mourners at the home of a deceased person, ostensibly to offer condolences but in reality to partake of the refreshments which he expects will be served’?
In this book I ventured into over two hundred new languages. The Ndebele of Southern Africa have the word dii-koyna, meaning ‘to destroy one’s own property in anger’, an impulse surely felt by most of us at some time or another, if not acted upon. From the Bakweri language of Cameroon we have wo-mba, a charming word to describe ‘the smiling in sleep by children’; and from the Buli language of Ghana the verb pelinti, ‘to move very hot food around inside one’s mouth in order to avoid too close a contact’. And doubtless there are many among us who have found ourselves disturbed by a butika roka (Gilbertese, Oceania) ‘a brother-in-law coming round too often’.
Once again, of course, many of the more unusual words relate closely to the local specifics of their cultures. Most of us are unlikely to need the verb sendula, (from the Mambwe of Zambia) meaning ‘to find accidentally a dead animal in the forest’, which carries with it the secondary meaning ‘and be excited at the thought that a lion or leopard might still be around’. But even if we never have the call to use these expressions, it’s surely enriching to know that in Finnish, poronkusema is ‘the distance equal to how far a reindeer can travel without urinating’; while manantsona, from the Malagasy of Madagascar, is ‘to smell or sniff before entering a house, as a dog does’. We may not share the same climate, but we can all too easily imagine the use of words like hanyauku, (Rukwangali, Namibia) ‘to walk on tiptoe on warm sand’, barbarian-on (Ik, Nilo-Saharan), ‘to sit in a group of people warming up in the morning sun’, or dynke (Norwegian), ‘the act of dunking somebody’s face in snow’.
Half as long again as The Meaning of Tingo, this second bite into the substantial cherry of world languages allowed me to venture in depth into all sorts of new areas. There are more examples of ‘false friends’, from the Czech word host, which confusingly means ‘guest’, to the Estonian sober, a perhaps unlikely word for ‘a male friend’. There are the intriguing meanings of the names of cities and countries, Palindromes and even national anthems, as well as a series of worldwide idioms, which join the words in confirming that the challenges, joys and disappointments of human existence are all too similar around the world. English’s admonitory ‘Don’t count your chickens’, for example, is echoed in most languages, becoming, in Danish: man skal ikke sælge skindet, før bjørnen er skudt ‘one should not sell the fur before the bear has been shot’; in Turkish, dereyi görmeden paçalari sivama, ‘don’t roll up your trouser-legs before you see the stream’ and in the Ndonga language of Namibia ino manga ondjupa ongombe inaayi vala, ‘don’t hang the churning calabash before the cow has calved’.
The Wonder Of Whiffling
While I was working on the previous two books, scouring libraries and second-hand bookshops, riffling through reference books from around the world to find words with unusual and delightful meanings, I kept coming across splendid English dictionaries too. Not just the mighty twenty-volume Oxford English Dictionary, but collections covering dialect, slang and subsidiary areas, such as Jamaican or Newfoundland English. Sneaking the occasional glance away from my main task I realized there was a wealth of little-known or forgotten words in our language, from its origins in Anglo-Saxon, through Old and Middle English and Tudor–Stuart, then on to the rural dialects collected so lovingly by Victorian lexicographers, the argot of nineteenth-century criminals, slang from the two world wars, right up to our contemporary world and the jargon that has grown up around such activities as darts, birding and working in an office. Offered the chance, it seemed only right to gather the best examples together and complete my trilogy: bringing, as it were, the original idea home.
Some of our English words mean much the same as they’ve always meant. Others have changed beyond recognition, such as racket, which originally meant the palm of the hand; grape, a hook for gathering fruit; or muddle, to wallow in mud. Then there are those words that have fallen out of use, but would undoubtedly make handy additions to any vocabulary today. Don’t most of us know a blatteroon (1645), a person who will not stop talking, not to mention a shot-clog (1599), a drinking companion only tolerated because he pays for the drinks. And if one day we feel mumpish (1721), sullenly angry, shouldn’t we seek the company of a grinagog (1565), one who is always grinning?
The dialects of Britain provide a wealth of coinages. In the Midlands, for example, we find a jaisy, a polite and effeminate man, and in Yorkshire a stridewallops, a tall and awkward woman. If you tuck too much into the clotted cream in Cornwall you might end up ploffy, plump; in Shropshire, hold back on the beer or you might develop joblocks, fleshy, hanging cheeks; and down in Wiltshire hands that have been left too long in the washtub are quobbled. The Geordies have the evocative word dottle for the tobacco left in the pipe after smoking, and in Lincolnshire charmings are paper and rag chewed into small pieces by mice. In Suffolk to nuddle is to walk alone with the head held low; and in Hampshire to vuddle is to spoil a child by injudicious petting. And don’t we all know someone who’s crambazzled (Yorkshire), prematurely aged through drink and a dissolute life?
Like English itself, my research hasn’t stopped at the shores of the Channel. How about a call-dog (Jamaican English), a fish too small for human consumption or a twack (Newfoundland English) a shopper who looks at goods, inquires about prices but buys nothing. Slang from elsewhere offers us everything from a waterboy (US police), a boxer who can be bribed or coerced into losing, to a shubie (Australian), someone who buys surfing gear and clothing but doesn’t actually surf. In Canada, a cougar describes an older woman on the prowl for a younger man, while in the US a quirkyalone is someone who doesn’t fall in love easily, but waits for the right person to come along.
Returning to the mainstream, it’s good to know that there are such sound English words as rumblegumption, meaning common sense, or ugsomeness, loathing. Snirtle is to laugh in a quiet, suppressed or restrained manner, while to snoach is to speak through the nose. If you are clipsome, you are eminently embraceable; when clumpst, your hands are stiff with cold. To boondoggle is to carry out valueless work in order to convey the impression that one is busy, while to limbeck is to rack the brain in an effort to have a new idea.
As for whiffling, well, that turned out to be a word with a host of meanings. In eighteenth-century Oxford and Cambridge, a whiffler was one who examined candidates for degrees, while elsewhere a whiffler was an officer who cleared the way for a procession, as well as being the name for the man with the whip in Morris dancing. The word also means to blow or scatter with gusts of air, to move or think erratically, as well as applying to geese descending rapidly from a height once the decision to land has been made. In the underworld slang of Victorian times, a whiffler was one who cried out in pain, while in the cosier world of P.G. Wodehouse, whiffled was what you were when you’d had one too many of Jeeves’s special cocktails.
As a self-confessed bowerbird (one who collects an astonishing array of sometimes useless objects), I’ve greatly
enjoyed putting together all three collections. I sincerely hope that you enjoy reading them, and that they save you both from mulligrubs, depression of spirits, and onomatomania, vexation in having difficulty finding the right word.
In compiling all three books I’ve done my level best to check the accuracy of all the words included, but any comments or even favourite examples of words of your own are welcomed at the book’s two websites: for foreign languages www.themeaningoftingo.com – and for English www.thewonderofwhiffling.com (There were some very helpful responses to my previous books, for which I remain grateful.)
Adam Jacot de Boinod
Acknowledgements
I am deeply grateful to the following people for their advice and help on all three books: Giles Andreae, Martin Bowden, Joss Buckley, Candida Clark, Anna Coverdale, Nick Emley, Natasha Fairweather, William Hartston, Beatrix Jacot de Boinod, Nigel Kempner, Nick and Galia Kullmann, Kate Lawson, Alf Lawrie, John Lloyd, Sarah McDougall, Yaron Meshoulam, Tony Morris, David Prest and David Shariatmadari.
In particular I must thank my agent, Peter Straus, my illustrator Sandra Howgate, my editor at Penguin, Georgina Laycock; and Mark McCrum for his invaluable work on the text.
The Meaning of Tingo
Meeting and Greeting
ai jiao de maque bu zhang rou (Chinese)
sparrows that love to chirp won’t put on weight
¡Hola!
The first and most essential word in all languages is surely ‘hello’, the word that enables one human being to converse with another:
aa (Diola, Senegal)
beeta (Soninke, Mali, Senegal and Ivory Coast)
bok (Croatian)
boozhoo (Ojibwe, USA and Canada)
daw-daw (Jutlandish, Denmark)
ella (Awabakal, Australia)
i ay (Huaorani, Ecuador)
khaumykhyghyz (Bashkir, Russia)
На основании Вашего запроса эти примеры могут содержать грубую лексику.
На основании Вашего запроса эти примеры могут содержать разговорную лексику.
было слово
есть слово
существовало слово
But if ever there was a word in my silence, you would hear it.
Но даже если бы в моём молчании было слово, ты бы услышал его.
I wish there was a word that meant complete satisfaction and complete self-loathing.
Я бы хотела, чтобы было слово, которое означало бы полное удовлетворение и полное отвращение к себе.
For centuries, trained stage magicians and untrailed snake charmers and con artists used the methods without ever knowing there was a word for it.
В течение многих веков обученные сценические фокусники, неопытные заклинатели змей и мошенники использовали методы, даже не зная, что для этого есть слово.
I never knew there was a word for that feeling, nor was it possible for a boy to become a girl, so I never told anyone and I just continued to do traditionally «boyish» things to try to fit in.
Я никогда не знала, что для этого есть слово, и никогда мальчик не мог стать девочкой, так что я ни с кем об этом не говорила и просто продолжала делать обычные «мальчуковые» вещи, пытаясь соответствовать.
I wish there was a word with an even greater meaning than love.
If there was a word better than awesome, I would use that word.
Если бы существовало слово, определяющее нечто лучшее, чем самое лучшее, мы бы использовали его здесь.
In the beginning there was a word, remember?
Therefore I am very pleased that they chose «And there was a word» as the first part.
Поэтому мне было очень приятно, что первой частью они выбрали «И было слово».
On the other hand, there was a word, like,
If only there was a word out there you could say to him.
Если бы было слово, которое ты мог бы сказать ему.
At the beginning there was a word, and the word was 2 bytes, and there was nothing else.
Вначале было слово, и слово было 2 байта, а больше ничего не было.
If you come to the end of a page and do not remember what you have read then there was a word on the page that you did not understand.
Если ты дошёл до конца страницы и не помнишь, что ты прочитал, значит, на этой странице было слово, которое ты не понял.
In Ancient India, there was a word Atman (or Atma) which denotes «one and indivisible».
Например, в Древней Индии было слово Атман (также Атма) в качестве обозначения «единого и неделимого».
Listen, there was a word written inside the matchbook — «cinnamon212.»
Слушай, в упаковке спичек было слово — корица212.
In the Latin there was a word
I did not, at this time, even know that there was a word for these odd occurrences.
I wish there was a word to describe the pleasure I feel at viewing misfortune.
Хотел бы я, чтобы нашлось слово, чтобы описать удовольствие, испытываемое мной при виде неудачи.
Due to a printing error, there was a word in the English dictionary from 1932 to 1940 which didn’t have a meaning.
С 1932 по 1940 год из-за типографской ошибки в словаре английского языка присутствовало слово, у которого не было значения.
Mr. NOBEL said that there was a word missing from the first line which should read «land rights of indigenous populations».
Г-н НОБЕЛЬ говорит, что в первой строке пропущено одно слово, и она должна звучать следующим образом: «земельных прав коренного населения».
And if there was a word wrongly written or even a letter incorrect the writing on the stones would remain there.
И если одно слово было написано неправильно, даже если всего одна буква была неверной, слова на камнях не исчезали.
Результатов: 34. Точных совпадений: 34. Затраченное время: 151 мс
Documents
Корпоративные решения
Спряжение
Синонимы
Корректор
Справка и о нас
Индекс слова: 1-300, 301-600, 601-900
Индекс выражения: 1-400, 401-800, 801-1200
Индекс фразы: 1-400, 401-800, 801-1200
From ‘shotclog’, a Yorkshire term for a companion only tolerated because he is paying for the drinks, to Albanian having 29 words to describe different kinds of eyebrows, the languages of the world are full of amazing, amusing and illuminating words and expressions that will improve absolutely everybody’s quality of life. All they need is this book!
This bumper volume gathers all three of Adam Jacot de Boinod’s acclaimed books about language — The Wonder of Whiffling, The Meaning of Tingo and Toujours Tingo (their fans include everyone from Stephen Fry to Michael Palin) — into one highly entertaining, keenly priced compendium. As Mariella Frostup said ‘You’ll never be lost for words again!’
- GenresNonfictionLanguageLinguisticsReferenceHumorWritingHistory
800 pages, Paperback
First published August 5, 2010
About the author
Adam Jacot de Boinod is a British author, notable for his works about unusual words, such as his last name. Usually known as Jacot, he has written three books, the first two looking at words which have no equivalent in the English language, and his third book which reveals unusual words in English.
Displaying 1 — 6 of 6 reviews
746 reviews817 followers
I wish there was a way of remembering everything I wanted to. I started taking notes at the beginning, but I gave up pretty soon. Unfortunately, the last third (when you’re really pissed by its length) is — subjectively speaking- the most interesting.
- 2011 in-en non-fiction
1 review3 followers
I bought this book because I am a massive word geek and I am currently running a blog about strange and obscure words. It’s a fascinating read, however I was disappointed to find several mistakes. One of the Welsh words mentioned (lledorweddle) should be ‘lledorwedd’, while the full spelling of Llanfair PG (you know the one) was incorrect. These, along with a few other examples, made me wonder how many other words were incorrect throughout the book. But maybe my pedantry stems from the fact that I am a Linguistics graduate, and so I don’t think anyone should be put off buying the book if they are a little interested in strange words.
It is a very humorous book and a wonderful insight into other cultures. Despite its flaws, I would recommend it.
401 reviews31 followers
This book is a combination of the 3 books by this author and is basically a hodge-podge of unique words or phrases that we have used over the course of human existence and their origins. One of the books is foreign phrases which were difficult to read since I didn’t know how to pronounce the words. I think having the pronunciation next to the words or phrases would have been a little helpful but would have been even more like a dictionary than it already was.
Cute and informative tho.
- reference
29 reviews28 followers
Want to read
October 11, 2010
Although I didn’t read all of it, it’s a really funny book, from which you will learn a lot of funny words and all kinds of languages, words that you will probably never use.
- my-bookshelf
144 reviews3 followers
Did you know there are words for snow in 5 different languages? There is a lot of that in here which is not very interesting. Did you know there are words in other languages which sound like English words but are false cogitates. Yeah, that was even less interesting. There were far too many lists of these sorts of things in here.
Basically, the only thing that kept me reading (a few pages at a time over probably 18 months) was the sections on idioms. The variety of ways different cultures express things was more what I was hoping to get from this book in general. And then the last 1/10th of the book got better because it was all dedicated to idioms in English.
Extraordinary. For a language enthusiast like me this collection was a real delicacy. It amused me, suprised me, made me laugh, made me wonder, and made me want to explore more. And made me want to share with the author a few words and expressions from Hungarian, my mother tongue.
Displaying 1 — 6 of 6 reviews