Seen in The Galleries, Bristol.
Bristols (noun, plural): English rhyming slang for breasts.
Bristol’s (possessive): from, of or pertaining to Bristol, a city in the west of England.
There’s obviously an apostrophe thief abroad in central Bristol. Could it be a greengrocer looking for fresh supplies (posts passim)? 😉
Spotted in Day’s Road, The Dings, Bristol.
Subvertising (noun), a portmanteau of subvert and advertising.
Definition: The practice of making parodies of corporate and political advertisements in order to make an ironic statement.
Oxymoron (noun), (plural) -mora.
Definition: (rhetoric) an epigrammatic effect, by which contradictory terms are used in conjunction.
There’s been a lot of coverage in the media recently on the falling price of crude oil – and consequently of petroleum products – but it is questionable whether any other coverage has attained the level of religious fervour exhibited by the Bristol Post, an organ not normally renowned for its piety.
Yesterday’s Post featured a report with the headline Unleaded petrol drops below £1 in Swindon – but when will Bristol see the hallowed price?
Yes, that’s right – hallowed.
According to Collins English Dictionary, the adjective hallowed has the following meanings:
1. set apart as sacred
2. consecrated or holy
Nowhere else have I encountered the price of petrol being referred to as being set apart as sacred, let alone consecrated or holy.
Collins also adds helpfully that hallowed is used to describe something that is respected and admired, usually because it is old, important, or has a good reputation.
I hardly think any of the adjectives so helpfully added by Collins could be applied – even in the broadest sense – to the price of petrol in the West Country.
Could it be that the unnamed journalist responsible for the piece is ignorant of the meaning of hallowed?
Quite possibly.
Furthermore, the Bristol Post is well known locally for its unquestioning championing of the motorist and demonisation of cyclists, not to mention its barely concealed opposition to Bristol Mayor George Ferguson’s plans for residents’ parking zones. That being so, perhaps Post “journalists” do worship piously at the pumps every time they fill up. 🙂
There’s a classic homophone in today’s online Bristol Post, which carries a feature on the return of What the Frock!, the city’s all-female comedy night.
The homophone in question is in first sentence of the third paragraph, which at the time of writing reads as follows:
The line-up features extended sets from both Mae Martin and Anna Morris and will be compared by Bristol’s very own Jayde Adams, pictured, winner of the Funny Women 2014 Awards.
Compared? With what? Or whom? 😉
The word you’re looking for, struggling Post journalist, is compere, whose dictionary definition is:
com·pere
(kŏm′pâr′) Chiefly British
n.
The master of ceremonies, as of a television entertainment program or a variety show.
v. com·pered, com·per·ing, com·peres
v.tr.
To serve as master of ceremonies for.
v.intr.
To serve as the master of ceremonies.
One major skill in journalism is devising an appropriate headline for any news report.
Down at Bristol’s Temple Way Ministry of Truth getting a headline to match the article occasionally seems to create difficulties! 🙂
About 5 minutes after the above screenshot was taken, the headline was amended.
Earlier this month, Staffordshire-based production team THE 7TH TOWN released its first feature length documentary called Oatcakes!
It’s a film about local pride and the people of the Potteries directed by Robert Burns and produced by Toby DeCann.
Local delicacy the Staffordshire oatcake (posts passim) features prominently in the film, as do the ales produced by Burslem’s Titanic Brewery (Edward Smith, captain of the ill-fated RMS Titanic, was born in Hanley. Ed.).
There are fine renditions of the local accent too, as well as lessons in Potteries history, heritage and culture.
It may be 1 hour and 45 minutes long, but if you have an interest in the food and/or people of the Potteries and North Staffordshire, it’s well worth watching.
Local papers around the country, including the Bristol Post, have reported that budget retailer Poundland has withdrawn Christmas cards containing a basic spelling error.
The cards themselves feature the words “Hark the Herald Angles“.
Furthermore, The Independent also reports that Poundland was also selling Christmas decorations spelling out either “Merry Shristmas” or “Merry Christmay“.
It is apparent that proof-reading costs far too much and would – if implemented – destroy Poundland’s profit margin on seasonal kitsch.
Incidentally, the Angles of East Anglia, in the shape of the Wuffingas dynasty, were instrumental in the establishment of Christianity in England. Rædwald (who was buried in the ship burial at Sutton Hoo) was the first East Anglian king to be baptised in 604. His descendant King Anna (or Onna), who reigned from c. 636 – 654 AD, had several of his offspring canonised as saints: his son Jurmin and all his daughters – Seaxburh, Æthelthryth, Æthelburh and possibly a fourth, Wihtburh.
Yesterday’s Sentinel gave Potteries folk a chuckle at a seasonal typographical error in this story‘s headline, as shown in the screenshot below.
Let’s hope Santa’s name slims down enough by Christmas Eve so that he can once again slip down chimneys. 😉
Earlier this morning a delivery lorry for cake manufacturer Mr Kipling got stuck under the railway bridge on Stoke Road, Stoke-on-Trent, as shown below and as reported by The Sentinel.
Mr Kipling still uses the advertising slogan – as seen on the side of the trailer – “Exceedingly good…“. That phrase presumably does not extend to (one of) its drivers. 😉
Alright me babber? Have you heard that hotel chain Travelodge has produced a guide to the West Country accent? The Gloucestershire Echo has.
The Echo article has a brief list of common phrases – presumably from Travelodge’s publication – to help visitors get by in the West:
One noticeable omission from the glossary above is ‘daps‘, Bristolian dialect for those shoes used for PE in schools, otherwise known as plimsolls or pumps. Bristolians also use the term to describe trainers.
The research also found that people who speak in West Country accents are less likely to be able to understand the accents of other people from elsewhere in Britain than they could understand Spanish or Italian. Curious (Blige! As one would say in Bristol. Ed.).
My copy of the Oxford Companion to the English Language, published 20 years ago, says the following about West Country accents:
The range of accents in the West Country extends from broad in the working-class and in rural areas through accents modified towards RP in the town and the lower middle class to RP proper in the middle and upper classes. Local speech is rhotic, with a retroflex /r/ in such words as rap, trip and r-coloured vowels in words such as car/cart. Postvocalic /r/ is widely retained in such cities as Bristol and Exeter, despite the influence of RP, which is non-rhotic. In other cities, such as Plymouth and Bournemouth, rhoticity varies. Traces of variable r-pronunciation are found as close to London as Reading and Berkshire.
The entry then goes on to deal extensively with local grammar, vocabulary and the literary West Country.
Hat tip: Yelena McCafferty.