not a swear word in the US..its a generic name for someone that you're yelling at
Nor in Britain, JB (though not very commonly used). But it could first have been used as a 'minced' form of bastard, you are right, like 'Gosh' = God and 'Sugar' = ****/bugger.
OK.
The reason I thought this word as a swear word is that I read a Stephen King's novel Needful Thing some time ago. In the book, a policeman yelled "Buster" at the town select-man, who was on the verge of giving that cop a punch.
Watch it Buster! is a warning...
wow, my name has been changed in order to face an upcoming "reform" of A2K. Not so bad right?
Quote:But the men were no longer eager as they pulled and hauled, and I heard curses among them, which left their lips smothered and as heavy and lifeles as were they
Watch the last two words. Is it still O.K. to switch the positions of "were" and "they" here?
I think so-"As were they" harks back to 19th century literature. IMO
Another question: Can "I don't know nothing" have the same meaning as "I don't know anythng"?
J-B wrote:Another question: Can "I don't know nothing" have the same meaning as "I don't know anythng"?
"I don't know nothing" would be uttered by someone that was uneducated or perhaps illiterate.
It seems like that. I heard that fron Brando in On the Waterfont, who played the role of a thug as you all know.
What does "a rough cut" mean?
J-B wrote:What does "a rough cut" mean?
If it's a movie being shot it means the first viewing, before editing is done
If it's a diamond it means the stone hasn't been finished cutting
oops. I originally thought it was used to describe a type of mood in the paragraph. But actually it is not.
Thanks panzade.
Quote:The former real estate guru for Disney now calls the shots at the St. Joe Company, Florida's former paper-and-timber giant that he has transformed into one of the largest coastal developers in the nation. Rummel beat the boomers to the big 6-0 by a couple of months. Tanned, fit and with a wreath of short-cropped gray hair, he could be George C. Scott's laid-back younger brother
1. How to "beat the boomers to the big 6-0"?
2. What is, or who is "George C. Scott's laid-back younger brother"?
Thank you.
Another one
Quote:Don't affect to be so delicate
What does "affect" mean here?
It means 'pretend'. Someone who behaves in an a 'put-on' way, not natural, we call 'affected', and they have 'affectations'.
Mostly used, I think, of women - they may have an affected laugh that they have cultivated to sound sweet and tinkly for example. I don't think you'd call it affectation if they pretend to be coarse and masculine!!
'Morning JB!
As for that slew of Americanisms, I can't help you. It's all Greek to me!*
*an idiom meaning you can't understand it
Heyhey I am afraid I know it Clare
Is that in Julius Caesar? (Don't you remember I have read that play? :wink: )
