Random non sequitur posts catch-all thread

fenomas wrote:
Grenn wrote:

It was explained to me by my best friend's wife's father (a Japanese man) that gaijin doesn't mean foreigner, it means "not Japanese" originally. The distinction is subtle, but it is there. This explanation happened when I said "I'm just a gaijin" in jest and he pulled me aside later to inform me what I had just did.

AFAIK most linguists think that the modern usage derives from "gaikokujin", which during Japan's imperial days referred to anyone from outside the Japanese empire (there being a separate term for people who were from countries within the empire but outside Japan).

But etymology aside, in general usage gaikokujin is the standard (formal) term and gaijin is widely assumed to be an abbreviation of it (apparently linguists disagree over whether that's actually the case). And in practice, both get used quite haphazardly - to refer to a person's legal nationality, their place of birth, their cultural background, their racial makeup, or any combination thereof.

RawkGWJ wrote:

A friend of mine who happens to be Asian told me that gaijin means white devil. I told him that not all Anglicans are white devils. He said, “Don’t worry. You’re one of the good ones.“

That'd be "gweilo", and it's Chinese.

I understand, from friends who have and do live in japan, that much like in America there is some blurring of these categories together in the way people are treated and thought about.

From my personal experience in central america and PR gringo is a similarly layered term and what it means depends very heavily on who is saying it and what your relationship with them is.

Oh yeah. My bad!

thrawn82 wrote:

From my personal experience in central america and PR gringo is a similarly layered term and what it means depends very heavily on who is saying it and what your relationship with them is.

A friend of mine who lives in Mexico told me that gringo is a phonetic interpretation of “green go!” And it refers to USA army troops and their green uniforms. Guero is similar in that it’s a reference to white and European troops and it evolved to mean “white guy”. At least that’s the story he told me.

If a Chicano says to a white guy with a friendly tone, “Orale, que hondas guero?” Guero is most likely being used endearingly. On the other hand, “Pinche gringo!”, should most always be considered threatening. Of course, context always matters most.

Life Tip:
If you have a bluetooth enabled radio in your car, make sure to do the following:
1) Make sure you actually have your phone with you prior to starting the car.
2) Set your Radio Presets to something you actual want to listen to.

Otherwise you may be subjected to your radio selecting an AM station that happens to be airing a Right-Wing Talk show taking listener calls; where what's left of your faith in "humanity" will destroyed before you begin your day.

thrawn82 wrote:

I understand, from friends who have and do live in japan, that much like in America there is some blurring of these categories together in the way people are treated and thought about.

From my personal experience in central america and PR gringo is a similarly layered term and what it means depends very heavily on who is saying it and what your relationship with them is.

On the first point, very much, yeah. My take, broadly, is that where America tends to see things in terms of race, Japan tends to see things as Japanese or non-Japanese. And in the latter case as in the former, the matter of how one in the latter case just as in the former, the matter of how and where the line gets drawn is pretty fuzzy and changes quite a bit over time.

On the second bit, just to clarify, gaijin doesn't have any "normally it'd be rude but between us it's friendly" layers going on, like I guess gringo might. Ironically it's more the reverse - the word isn't itself an insult, but nowadays some native speakers avoid it because they've heard that some foreigners think it's an insult.

Edit: AM talk radio... shudder

Nimcosi wrote:

Life Tip:
If you have a bluetooth enabled radio in your car, make sure to do the following:
1) Make sure you actually have your phone with you prior to starting the car.
2) Set your Radio Presets to something you actual want to listen to.

Otherwise you may be subjected to your radio selecting an AM station that happens to be airing a Right-Wing Talk show taking listener calls; where what's left of your faith in "humanity" will destroyed before you begin your day.

Further tip for any shared cars situations: If your car bluetooth is paired to multiple people, try to make sure anyone else the system is paired to is not on the phone when you start up the car to drive away. My wife was inside on the phone when her call was transferred to our car and I heard WAY TOO MUCH detail about what her friend was going through before I was able to transfer the call back to my wife's handset.

ThatGuy42 wrote:

Further tip for any shared cars situations: If your car bluetooth is paired to multiple people, try to make sure anyone else the system is paired to is not on the phone when you start up the car to drive away. My wife was inside on the phone when her call was transferred to our car and I heard WAY TOO MUCH detail about what her friend was going through before I was able to transfer the call back to my wife's handset. :oops:

I call that the "Mama's home alarm", when she pulls into the driveway, whatever she's listening to in the car starts coming out of our kitchen speaker.

ThatGuy42 wrote:

Further tip for any shared cars situations: If your car bluetooth is paired to multiple people, try to make sure anyone else the system is paired to is not on the phone when you start up the car to drive away. My wife was inside on the phone when her call was transferred to our car and I heard WAY TOO MUCH detail about what her friend was going through before I was able to transfer the call back to my wife's handset. :oops:

Been there, done that (thankfully without too much gory detail about her friend's life).

RawkGWJ wrote:

A friend of mine who lives in Mexico told me that gringo is a phonetic interpretation of “green go!” And it refers to USA army troops and their green uniforms.

Except the first recorded use is from Spain in 1787, and at that time, US troops were neither in Spain nor wearing green uniforms. The most likely derivation is from "Grieco", as "that's Greek to me"; someone who speaks gibberish or at least can't wrap themselves around Castilian.

All this gringo & gaijin talk reminds me of how c—t is used in the UK & Oz.

Lauren Mayberry (CHVRCHES singer) once said in an interview, describing the difference, “In Glasgow, where I’m from, you could even say: oh yeah, that guy’s great, he’s a good c—t. Yeah! A good c—t!”

Robear wrote:
RawkGWJ wrote:

A friend of mine who lives in Mexico told me that gringo is a phonetic interpretation of “green go!” And it refers to USA army troops and their green uniforms.

Except the first recorded use is from Spain in 1787, and at that time, US troops were neither in Spain nor wearing green uniforms. The most likely derivation is from "Grieco", as "that's Greek to me"; someone who speaks gibberish or at least can't wrap themselves around Castilian.

You know, I never fact checked his story, but I suspected that it wasn’t accurate. Thanks for clarifying.

RawkGWJ wrote:

You know, I never fact checked his story, but I suspected that it wasn’t accurate. Thanks for clarifying.

Next time you should consult an authoritative reference, such as every single result in the first page of a google search

Edited to add:

BadKen wrote:

Lauren Mayberry (CHVRCHES singer) once said in an interview, describing the difference, “In Glasgow, where I’m from, you could even say: oh yeah, that guy’s great, he’s a good c—t. Yeah! A good c—t!”

Yeah, that's a weird one. To aussies and scots it seems to pretty much just be "dude", but I was surprised the other day when a friend of mine who's basically cockney said hearing the word makes him quite uncomfortable, especially if there are ladies present.

fenomas wrote:
RawkGWJ wrote:

You know, I never fact checked his story, but I suspected that it wasn’t accurate. Thanks for clarifying.

Next time you should consult an authoritative reference, such as every single result in the first page of a google search

But wouldn’t you grow bored if I did that? To be fair, that friend of mine might have been attempting a dad joke.

RawkGWJ wrote:

But wouldn’t you grow bored if I did that?

Hehe, jokes aside I really like folk etymologies -- mind your Ps and Qs referring to pints and quarts, "gentlemen only ladies forbidden", all that jazz. But the reason is unhealthy - I have too much of the "well ackchually" gene, and the existence of folk etymologies feeds that impulse like kindling to a fire.

fenomas wrote:

I have too much of the "well ackchually" gene, and the existence of folk etymologies feeds that impulse like kindling to a fire.

I’ve got that gene too, so I completely understand.

When I posted that, my intention was to serve up a meatball so someone else could knock it out of the park. I also made sure to qualify it as anecdotal by saying, “My friend told me...” I hope that doesn’t offend anybody.

fenomas wrote:

Hehe, jokes aside I really like folk etymologies -- mind your Ps and Qs referring to pints and quarts

My anecdotal understanding of mind your Ps and Qs has to do with the lower case form of those letters being so incredibly similar. But I’ve also heard that when movie and TV extras are feigning conversation with each other, that they are encouraged to just say, “Ps and Qs” over and over. Also, “pease and carrots”. I haven’t Googled this and probably won’t.

Fornicating Under Consent of King!

The origin story I’d heard for “mind your P’s and Q’s” claimed it started among printers in the days of lead type.

And I have repeated “peas and carrots” while in the background in a crowd scene, but that was in high-school theater. I cannot speak to professional acting practice.

misplacedbravado wrote:

The origin story I’d heard for “mind your P’s and Q’s” claimed it started among printers in the days of lead type.

And I have repeated “peas and carrots” while in the background in a crowd scene, but that was in high-school theater. I cannot speak to professional acting practice.

The folk story i heard regarding P's and Q's involves the tab board in a pub and watching to make sure the tender doesn't give you a P (pint) and write down a Q (quart) on your tab

It's about not letting people pass off a queef as a fart (or "parp")

The origin of the phrase isn't really known for sure, although there are multiple theories. A lot of phrases are ultimately like this: we just don't know and never will.

RawkGWJ wrote:

Fornicating Under Consent of King!

But some things we do know for sure, like that this one is false. Here's a good column on acronym word origins like this one and why they're mostly all fake.

I'm pretty sure that's not right... but i like it better so i;m going to choose to believe that's the origin.

Yay, Clock to the rescue!

I was wondering how long it would take the Clock signal being repeatedly shown in this thread for our own fount of arcane grammar knowledge to appear.

Yeah, back in the day there was a great column in lots of alt-weeklies called "The Word Detective", where the author would hunt down etymologies and such. He'd often explain that, as a rule of thumb, acronyms pretty much didn't exist until about WW2. And so anytime you hear any kind of "To Insure Promptness" kind of etymology, it's safe to assume it's false unless the word itself is extremely recent coinage.

But the "p's and q's" one is kind of mind-boggling. The implication that it would refer to written letters is so manifestly obvious it's hard to imagine why anyone would think up other explanations, let alone buy into a different explanation without evidence.

It's like saying "well you see in the cartoon industry, illustrators often draw a character's eye as a circle with a dot in the middle, and something something that's where the phrase 'dot your eyes and cross your tees' comes from".

fenomas wrote:

Yeah, back in the day there was a great column in lots of alt-weeklies called "The Word Detective", where the author would hunt down etymologies and such. He'd often explain that, as a rule of thumb, acronyms pretty much didn't exist until about WW2. And so anytime you hear any kind of "To Insure Promptness" kind of etymology, it's safe to assume it's false unless the word itself is extremely recent coinage.

But the "p's and q's" one is kind of mind-boggling. The implication that it would refer to written letters is so manifestly obvious it's hard to imagine why anyone would think up other explanations, let alone buy into a different explanation without evidence.

It's like saying "well you see in the cartoon industry, illustrators often draw a character's eye as a circle with a dot in the middle, and something something that's where the phrase 'dot your eyes and cross your tees' comes from". :D

Modern Analogues:
A Way with Words
Lexitecture
Bunny Trails

Enjoy!

The origin of okay is incredibly fascinating and weird. It’s a long and convoluted tale that I won’t even attempt to summarize here.

Security camera caught a lightning strike on a pole. Man it is hot also. Hope no fires are caused by other strikes but it was cool to see.

If anyone needs me I will be in the corner screaming for the next hour.

I don't think it is good idea to try to park big mack trucks in little garages. Some people think they want that but then you get a mack truck going through your kitchen and the garage is totally ruined. Also that mack truck is going to be ruined also. Maybe that is okay with you if you never want to drive it again. You'll never be able to put a goblin face on the grill and terrorize people in gas station with that mack truck ever again.

Just park your vehicle in the space it was designed for okay. Also calling your volvo a mack truck isn't fooling anybody. People have eyeballs.

IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/fq0gcHw/ats-20200526-031800-00.jpg)