Showing posts with label rupert murdoch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rupert murdoch. Show all posts

Monday, August 01, 2011

Words of the day: pants, bumptious, and berk

The words of the day are pants, bumptious, and berk:

pants.  Shortened < pantaloons, plural of pantaloon n.
orig. U.S. 
4. Brit. slang. Rubbish; nonsense. Freq. in pile (also load) of pants .The use of the noun in this sense is often difficult to distinguish from a predicative adjectival use. (OED)


bumptious.  A humorous formation, suggested perhaps by bump n.1 or bump v.1, and words in -tious, like fractious. (Not in Craig 1847, nor in any earlier Dict.)
Offensively self-conceited; self-assertive. (colloq. and undignified.) (OED)


berk.  Abbrev. of Berkeley (or Berkshire) Hunt, rhyming slang for [an obscenity].
slang.
A fool. (OED)


"The Times (also Murdoch-owned) published a profile of Bryant titled 'BLAIR’S ATTACK POODLE SAYS PANTS TO THE LOT OF YOU,' which included a blind quote calling Bryant a 'bumptious little berk.'"

 - Lauren Collins, "Early birds", 25 July 2011 The New Yorker


Firstly, I'm not convinced that the use of the word pants here is quite the same as in the dictionary.  Secondly, given berk's etymology, I wonder if it doesn't have a bit more bite and mysogyny to it than merely "fool".

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Word of the day: roger

The word of the day is roger:

coarse slang (chiefly Brit.).
 trans. Usually of a man: to have sexual intercourse with (a person, esp. a woman). Also intr. (OED)


"Over the years, the tabloids continued to give Bryant hell: 'VOTERS MUST GIVE CHRIS BRYANT A RHONDDA ROGERING,' read a typical headline in Murdoch’s Sun."

 - Lauren Collins, "Early birds", 25 July 2011 The New Yorker