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This tag is for questions related to mutually intelligible variations within a language.
7
votes
Accepted
How to compare frequency of word use over time between British and American English?
On Google's Ngram viewer you can set the corpus to be American English or British English, and get a graph for each. You can then compare the y-axis values, being careful to note that Google autoscale …
5
votes
Origin of "cracked the sh**s"
I think this phrase is predominantly restricted to Australia, but with some use found in New Zealand. I've never heard it in British or American English, and wouldn't have understood it without suitab …
12
votes
Accepted
Origin of "chuck a wobbly"?
Chucking a wobbly comes from throw a wobbly and wobbly refers to a fit of anger, possibly suggesting the person is mentally unbalanced.
The 1994 Shorter Slang Dictionary (Partridge, Beale, Fergusso …
8
votes
Accepted
What is the best term to categorize a lolcat image and text?
"Lolcat is an example of ______."
Lolcat is an example of anthropomorphisation, internet meme and web humour.
Image macro
It is also known as a cat macro, or more generally, along with other forms suc …
6
votes
"Season" vs. "series"
In the US, "series" refers to the entire collection of episodes from all years, and "season" refers to a batch of episodes broadcast in a run, usually in the same year.
In the UK, "series" usually re …
2
votes
Are older senses of "anent" still alive in any dialect?
In this sense many northern dialects have now fore-nent.
A.III.†8. Obs.
A.III.†9. Obs.
A.III.†10.a. Obs.
A.III.†10.†b. Obs. …
2
votes
Dialectal and historical usage of "not care" in the meaning of "not mind"
Care has several subtle meanings depending on context. "I don't care to..." can be the negative "I don't wish to...", but it can also mean the almost neutral "I don't mind to..." where you have no obj …
4
votes
History and usage of "dooryard"
The Chronicling America newspaper archives covers 1836 - 1922. The earliest 500 results for dooryard (removing duplicates) are found between 1836 and 1875 and are from these states:
OH: 151
VT: 88 …
11
votes
Accepted
How toffee-nosed is "toffee-nosed"?
Is the word itself still understood as being used by the lower class, or does it's use connote something about the user other than disdain for the upper class? (Rephrased, is someone who uses the w …
2
votes
What's the origin of "dinkum"?
Fair dinkum can be found earlier than the OED's 1888 dinkum, and was used first in horse-racing. The OED has fair dinkum dated to an 1888 book:
1888 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Robbery under Arms v, It to …
3
votes
OED Appeals: Origin of "bimble"
Bill S found a bimble as a noun in 1980 which the OED has verified:
Snippett from "Roots of England", John Miller, Sid Waddell 1980
"Most said that getting their 'wets' [drinks] meant little involvem …
14
votes
8
answers
4k
views
OED Appeals: Origin of "bimble"
The OED has made a public appeal for help in tracing the history of some English words, including:
bimble
verb earlier than 1983
The word bimble, meaning ‘to move at a leisurely pace’, i …
10
votes
4
answers
809
views
What's the origin of "dinkum"?
Dinkum as a noun means work, especially hard work. As an adjective, like fair dinkum, it means honest or genuine.
Other than saying it's chiefly Australian and New Zealand, the OED simply says "Origi …
6
votes
Accepted
Is "early mark" only used in Australia and New Zealand?
I've never heard it in the UK, or from elsewhere.
Here's are three examples of how it's used, from Superlinguo:
Goddam. The one day I am not writing on question time, the PM gives everyone an …