I'm never sure exactly what they mean. Are you?
- Slowpoke
- Cinch or sinch
- Dreadnought
- Sus as in to sus out
- Sing Sing - a place?
- Poop deck
- Sandlot
- Slugger
- Cowpoke
- Heck
- Stoop
- G-men
- Bleacher
- Zoot suit
- Hash tag
Some of these are likely to be American. Rather than google them, have a go yourselves at the meanings and the origins. You can do it.
The Poop deck is the rearmost deck on a sailing ship, usually where the officers stood.
ReplyDeleteI always thought it was the hindmost portion of a galleon, where sailors dropped their keks and let one rip into the sea!
DeleteThat's called the heads!
DeleteSing Sing was an infamous american prison. Dreadnought is a classification of battleship, from the naval power days. Thunderchild, the ironclad from War of the Worlds was probably Dreadnought class. The name literally means 'fearless'
ReplyDelete'Heck' is a corruption and taming of the curse word 'Hell'. Like Gor blimey!, which came from 'God Blind Me!'
ReplyDeleteIf "stoop" is meant as "pavement", then it may have come from Dutch settlers in the USA. In Dutch it's written as "stoep" but pronounced the same.
ReplyDeleteAs to "poop" (written as "poep" in Dutch), I believe that originally meant a person's rear end and would prolly be applied to a ship as well. In Flemish (which often seems a bit archaic to a Dutchman), the word "poep" still refers to personal anatomy, whereas in Dutch it now describes what comes out of that part of the body, much like the name of the emoji voiced over by Sir Patrick Stewart. :)
Best -- Paul
we also use the word 'stoop' to refer to a shortened front porch. For example many houses here in the States don't have front porches but may have a small concrete pad by the front door. This we would call the 'stoop'.
ReplyDeleteI'd argue that's the same difference, Ed. 'Stoop' then still refers refers to a smallish bit of hard surface in front of the front door, which is what most houses in the old Dutch town centres only have. Except they'd run the width of the house to form a continuous pavement. And iirc, they're legally still the responsibility of the occupants of the house, hence the noted Dutch habit of cleaning them regularly.
DeleteBest -- Paul