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Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2007The how much?
Hello: Is this "The how much?" frequently used as a double-take(BrE)? --- [Talking about a mule driver] "He is the _agoyatis_ of Mr. Conchis." "The how much?" "He has a donkey. He takes the mail and the foot to Bourani." John Fowles, The Magus, p. 59 --- Thanks. Marius Hancu >Hello: > [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] >John Fowles, The Magus, p. 59 >--- You asked about BrE, but in AmE that would be in the "What's an agoyatis when he's at home?" category. Most of us have some stock phrase that we sometimes use when we don't understand a word or term. There are probably hundreds of them. It would be frequently used if it was your family's stock phrase, and never used if your family used a different one.  SignatureTony Cooper Orlando, FL > >Hello: > > [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > You asked about BrE, but in AmE that would be in the "What's an > agoyatis when he's at home?" category. As indeed it would in BrE. "The how much" is a new one on me. Mike M >>> Hello: >>> [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > > As indeed it would in BrE. "The how much" is a new one on me. I suddenly remember that my father (b. 1918, Aus) used to use it. I can't remember hearing it from anybody else; but I wouldn't have been surprised if I had. SignatureMike. -- Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com Mike Lyle ha escrito: > >>> Hello: > >>> [quoted text clipped - 26 lines] > -- > Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com I've never heard it, but I've read it, in fiction written in the UK long ago. Ngaio Marsh? Georgette Heyer (mysteries, not romances)? Josephine Tey? Cece > >Hello: > > [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > You asked about BrE, but in AmE that would be in the "What's an > agoyatis when he's at home?" category. I've seen that often in British books, but I don't remember ever hearing it in America or seeing it in an American book. > Most of us have some stock > phrase that we sometimes use when we don't understand a word or term. ... Mine are "A what?" and "What's an agoyatis?" and "I don't know what that is". Witty and picturesque, don't you think? SignatureJerry Friedman > Hello: > [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > > John Fowles, The Magus, p. 59 Marius, if you read the rubbish written by John Fowles, you will pretty soon addle your brain. Stop now, while there is still a chance! > Hello: > [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > Thanks. > Marius Hancu No, but easily understood. Where I come from 'we had one of those but the wheel came off so my Mam gave it to the rag-man.' would be a more-likely and frequently-heard response. > > "He is the _agoyatis_ of Mr. Conchis." > > "The how much?" [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > the wheel came off so my Mam gave it to the rag-man.' would be a > more-likely and frequently-heard response. Now, what would be the origin/meaning of _that_ one? BTW, didn't get any Google hits on: "wheel came off * rag-man" Marius Hancu The Marius Hancu entity posted thusly: >> > "He is the _agoyatis_ of Mr. Conchis." >> > "The how much?" [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] >BTW, didn't get any Google hits on: >"wheel came off * rag-man" I haven't heard this except in the shorter version, which was commonly heard when I was growing up in Western Canada. "I had one, but the wheel(s) fell off." Google supplies a lot of hits for "but the wheels fell off", but they are mostly in the sense of describing a failure in sport or other endeavours, as in "The Argonauts were doing well in the first half, but the wheels fell off" Making "wheels" singular gives a lot more relevant hits. >> > "He is the _agoyatis_ of Mr. Conchis." >> > "The how much?" [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] >BTW, didn't get any Google hits on: >"wheel came off * rag-man" A rag-man is probably a rag-and-bone man: a totter, a person who went from house to house collecting junk for resale. "Steptoe and Son" was a famous British TV comedy about rag-and-bone men. SignatureRobin Herts, England > BTW, didn't get any Google hits on: > "wheel came off * rag-man" > > Marius Hancu "Wheel came off" has already been satisfactorily explained. As for "rag-man", when I was a small child (1952-1960) in London, the "rag-and-bone man" was a well known figure. Driving a horse and cart, he would progress along the street ringing a handbell. People would bring out unwanted items such as saucepans with holes in them or without handles, old clothes, in short, recycleable junk. I am not sure whether he paid for these things or whether they were donated. He would make his living by sorting the items eg the clothing would be separated into white and coloured, cotton and wool, etc and selling them to scrap merchants in bulk. Nobody ever seemed to give him bones. "Only fit for the rag-and-bone man" was a common phrase meaning "worn out, beyond further use". "Knackered" still means roughly the same thing in UK slang. (A knacker recycled horses). > > BTW, didn't get any Google hits on: > > "wheel came off * rag-man" > "Wheel came off" has already been satisfactorily explained. As for > "rag-man", when I was a small child (1952-1960) in London, the > "rag-and-bone man" was a well known figure. Driving a horse and cart, > he would progress along the street ringing a handbell. "rag-and-bone man"! God! I have not heard term that since the last time I saw Steptoe & Son. When I was a kid the local RABM used to give away dirt-cheap plastic bumble bees that made a horrendous racket when you spun them on the bit of thread. But does anyone rember the tinker, on his modified bicycle with attached grindstone? Sorry, this probably predates that new silly program ont he wireless - the Goons. > "rag-and-bone man"! God! I have not heard term that since the last time I > saw Steptoe & Son. I was a little confused the first time I saw him, or rather his cart. It didn't look like the carts in my story books, that is with spoked wheels with solid rims. His cart had wheels with pneumatic rubber tyres like those on a motor lorry (truck). Coal was delivered by a much dirtier cart with a much cleaner horse, which seemed a bit of a paradox to me. [...] > But does anyone rember the tinker, on his modified bicycle with > attached grindstone? Sorry, this probably predates that new silly > program ont he wireless - the Goons. Did he only sharpen bades? We still have those here in Ottawa, called "scissors-grinders" in our house. Until about the eighties, they walked slowly through the neighbourhood, pushing a wheeled grindstone and ringing an old-fashioned school bell to alert potential customers. Most recently, the one who sharpened my lawnmower blade (badly) last summer drove his van slowly through, and the bell was automated. > [...] > [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > Most recently, the one who sharpened my lawnmower blade (badly) last > summer drove his van slowly through, and the bell was automated. The 'sixties Oxford one had an old bike. His drill was to put the bike on a kickstand, detach the chain from the back sprocket and put it on some simple though Heath-Robinsonian way of transferring the drive from the pedals to the grindstone. Part of his shtick was to make a point of showing customers his own pocket knife, which was as blunt as could be. He then made you guess how much to pay him, which was a smart business move. But he didn't cry "Knives, scissors, and razors to grind!" as the literature tells us was traditional. When I was a child, scissors were treated as rather precious objects: I doubt if our family had more than three pairs including the nail scissors. This results in one of my eccentricities: I don't know for sure, but I think there are probably a dozen pairs of scissors of all kinds within thirty feet of me. These days I think people just throw them away when they get blunt: but when my daughter was a restaurant manager, a bloke used to come round and grind all the kitchen knives every week, so the trade hasn't died out. SignatureMike. -- Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com > The 'sixties Oxford one had an old bike. His drill was to put the bike > on a kickstand, detach the chain from the back sprocket and put it on [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > He then made you guess how much to pay him, which was a smart business > move. I saw a man like that once in my neighborhood, about six years ago. I had hoped he would set up on a regular schedule, so I could bring him my knives to sharpen, but he never appeared again. Which is particularly odd... where did he go? How did he happen to show up just once? SignatureSML Sara Lorimer wrote, in <1hshj77.j0sox5eiv29sN%que.sara.saraDELETE@gmail.com> on Thu, 25 Jan 2007 07:24:45 -0800: > > The 'sixties Oxford one had an old bike. His drill was to put the bike > > on a kickstand, detach the chain from the back sprocket and put it on [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > knives to sharpen, but he never appeared again. Which is particularly > odd... where did he go? How did he happen to show up just once? Maybe he did get enough trade in your area to make it worth his while. SignatureNick Spalding > "Wheel came off" has already been satisfactorily explained. As for > "rag-man", when I was a small child (1952-1960) in London, the > "rag-and-bone man" was a well known figure. Driving a horse and cart, > he would progress along the street ringing a handbell. People would > bring out unwanted items such as saucepans with holes in them or > without handles, old clothes, in short, recycleable junk. Did other countries have the bottle-oh? He was, in effect, a Steptoe who specialised in glass bottles. Part of my childhood income came from selling used beer bottles to the bottle-oh. (Another part came from selling piles of newspaper to butchers and fish shops.) SignaturePeter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org Please note the changed e-mail and web addresses. The domain eepjm.newcastle.edu.au no longer exists, and I can no longer receive mail at my newcastle.edu.au addresses. The optusnet address could disappear at any time. |
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