Chris Linfoot | Two nations divided by a common language

Tuesday, 25. November 2008

Two nations divided by a common language - yet again

Looking for a Christmas stocking filler for a loved one?

May I humbly suggest a book to which I was an unwitting contributor nearly three years ago and which has nonetheless only very recently been published.

That book is The Septic's Companion: A Mercifully Brief Guide to British Culture and Slang.

The book, by Chris Rae, is derived from Chris's redoubtable web site, The English-to-American Dictionary (now apparently known as The Septic's Companion).

I offered up two definitions all those years ago. One seems to have been somewhat abbreviated in the editing process and the other is inexplicably absent, perhaps for reasons of taste.

The former, as submitted by me, is this:

navvy (abbrev) n navigator. Navigators were originally people engaged in the building of navigations. A navigation would for example be a canal or sometimes a river, like the Severn which was widened and deepened and had locks placed along its length. When canals were superseded by railways and, later still, roads, navigators went and built those too.

And the latter, this:

tits up adj. dead. A person (not necessarily female) who is tits up must be lying down. The type of lying down implied by tits up is that caused by death - the recumbent individual will never again be in a position to stand upright and so tits up signifies something that is, to be very blunt, dead.

Category: Misc
Technorati: English American Dictionary The+Septic's+Companion

Comments :

1. John Lindsay28/11/2008 12:33:50
Homepage: http://www.florida-poolsidecottage.com

In my experience of working offshore "Tits Up" has been expanded (and for quite some years) to include equipment as well as people e.g. The sub has gone tits up translates to the Submarine (usually a Remote Operated Vehicle) is no longer working. I think it got into the Offshore sector from the Armed Forces as we have a number of ex-service personnel in the industry.

Anyone going to volunteer why it is called the "Septic's" Companion.....

2. Chris Linfoot28/11/2008 12:58:59

Indeed. We regularly used tits up for dead servers, power supplies, air conditioners etc...

3. Mark C.28/11/2008 20:46:05

I am aware of the etymology of the Sepo nickname for Yanks, and as an American, I suppose I should be offended but when the world sees the U.S. elect W not once, but twice! It was enough to give me doubts about 51 million of my fellow citizens, but I digress...

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