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Haileyburiana is a miscellany of things I got up to as President of the Haileybury Society in 2010 - 2011 and random musings on things to do with Haileybury. Whether you are an OH, a current pupil or parent, a teacher or other friend of the school I hope you will find something interesting here. The blog is no longer regularly updated, but there may still be occasional posts.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Translation Please

Translate from American into English:

"All striders must be checked." [Answer tomorrow.]

Words words words Hamlet 2:2
There has been a correspondence in the papers about slang and bad English and I caught the discussion getting into Any Answers on the wireless in the car on the way to collect boys from school on Saturday. Haileybury slang seems to change all the time. The Grubber is still current. The San is now officially the "Health Centre" but generally called the San among the young. Chits are still given by San and Bookroom. But groize is no longer served in the dining hall. I am told that word for butter was current only in some Houses anyway. We used to 'keep chips' at the door of DC or dormitory - other schools called that 'keeping cave' - meaning a lookout. Oips, as I have noted before is now defunct. But what of other words?

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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