Wordwizard

This is strange, “ticked off” meaning admonished is a perfectly common expression here, and still in daily use. It really surprises me that only Sandy has heard of it, Scotland and Wales hardly share a border. On the subject of forms that we fill in and Americans fill out, have you noticed that Brit...

I haven't seen it since I was a young, I mean younger man either, and as you say it was only used by older people then. Perhaps it has fallen into the great shredder.

And if I saw it I would drink it, always assuming I could chisel the money out of She Who Must Be Obeyed.

To tick someone off is to admonish them. "The child's mother ticked him off for running in the corridor". "I was ticked off when I got my sums wrong".

I remember that we used to tap up girls in the Sixties (“I’m going to tap up that bird in the red mini dress”). It was used then, as apparently now, instead of “chat up”. But in truth, it is not an expression I have heard since those days, so I was quite surprised when it suddenly came into use agai...

Do you think that there is any hope that this one will spontaneously combust as well?

I have ordered more fingers for Christmas so that I can do my sums, there are times that you can only feel an idiot!

Oh that I could have another go at this game called life in 42 years time, there might even be a cure for the mobile telephone by then.

I meant twenty-one-forty-seven of course. I often wonder why I didn't go in for maths.

For what it is worth I use "twenty-oh-five" working on the principle that "two-thousand-one-hundred-and-forty-seven will be a bit of a mouthful for me when people ask me in what year I will be 100, twenty-forty-seven seems a lot easier.

Do you mean OWAIN GLYNDWR Edwin? It was a bloke called Shakespeare who spelled him Owen Glendower, and he had trouble spelling his own name as I recall! Actually, we have a comedian here called Owen Money, which means that as a signature tune he can use “The best things in life are free. But you can...

I fully agree with Frank. The sentiment that Briton is not great any more does show ignorance, and he is also right that these people will not take telling. If I might paraphrase Frank, Brittany, which is now part of France is Lesser Britain, which makes the UK mainland, Great Britain. Just to empha...

If Erik does tell us where his friend banks, I will be delighted to stand a round next year, as opposed to having to stand around next here.

I wouldn't have though so Jane, we use "behind" in exactly the same ways in the UK, but we do not use "in back of" at all.

Do you think it could have come from duelling parlance? "I stand to regain my good name".

Allan is right, "rarebit" is the commonly used name, but Welsh rabbit is the dish. I have no idea how the name changed, possibly it was simply to avoid confusion on a menu.