"All striders must be checked." [Answer tomorrow.]
Words words words Hamlet 2:2 |
The great compiler of English slang was Eric Partridge. His Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English has recently been updated. I am the happy owner of a little book by Morris Marples called University Slang. I have never been able to find the companion volume of Public School Slang, but maybe Amazon - which has taken so much of the fun out of scouring second hand bookshops - will help. I was sure that University Slang had a mention of Haileybury but I cannot find it now. Marples, writing in 1950 notes that transport and communications mean that 'the days when schools, colleges and universities could develop a peculiar speech almost in isolation' were coming to an end. But he is no less right to observe that any group will develop their 'own distinctive vocabularies… tending to hold the group together and by emphasizing its individuality.'
So - what words do you use? And can you work out my translation test?
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