My friends and I were talking today about certain phrases having original meanings but no longer having them-- things like "flippin' 'eck" -- flipping heck which used to be a nice way to say f*&^^)( he(( -- not a very nice phrase indeed. But nowadays, flippin eck just kind of means "oh dear". At least that's what I mean when I say it! The whole discussion came from my hubby semi-chastising me about having said flippin' eck in front of someone who may have taken offense at it, realising that I may not have even known what I was saying. He knows I mean "oh dear" but they may not have known.
The other word is "knackered". To me, having heard it and put it into context in my brain amongst all the other briticisms, it means absolutely exhausted-- completely dead-tired. That's what I mean when I use this word-- and that's what my friend means as well. Our extremely cool pastor (good ol' Pastor Danny!!) asked her how she was the other day, and she said she was knackered... without thinking twice about it at the time, but later on wondered how he took it-- and in our conversation today, she said something to the effect of "when I said it to him (pastor danny whohoo!) I didn't mean 'like a prostitute after a long night!!'" (the original meaning of the word... )
so you really do have to be careful what you say-- because sometimes it may mean something to you, and someone may be able to figure it out by the context, but it still might be offensive to them, having a different meaning for them!!
eek! i'll never be totally p.c. :( i fail all the time and i don't even realise it!
Posted by kristen at January 12, 2004 11:26 PM