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Discussion Groups / English Usage / June 2007He did, didn't he?
Shirley I wasn't the only one to notice that Dr Brown, our new great leader, promised to do his "outmost", was I? I am, though, quite pleased that, after ten long years, the prime minister is now older than me again. Philip Eden "Philip Eden" <philipATweatherHYPHENukDOTcom> had it ... > Shirley I wasn't the only one to notice that Dr Brown, our new great > leader, promised to do his "outmost", was I? You were not. I noted it for later AUEing, but you beat me to it. Is is Scottish dialect? He stated that it was his school motto so it shouldn't be too difficult to track down. Which I have done, but to no avail. The motto is in Latin, so Gordon's rendition in English is up to him. <wikip> The school's motto is usque conabor (I shall try to my utmost). </wikip> The current prospectus translates it as "working together to improve", and the Head's page contains the line "Only the best will do" (with no indication that it's related to the motto). Take yer pick.  SignatureDavid ===== In alt.usage.english, the Omrud wrote: >"Philip Eden" <philipATweatherHYPHENukDOTcom> had it ... > [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] >You were not. I noted it for later AUEing, but you beat me to it. >Is is Scottish dialect? NSOED marks it (meaning "utmost") obsolete. SignatureMike Barnes Cheshire, England >"Philip Eden" <philipATweatherHYPHENukDOTcom> had it ... > [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] >The school's motto is usque conabor (I shall try to my utmost). ></wikip> Always be suspicious of a Scotchman and his usque. >The current prospectus translates it as "working together to >improve", and the Head's page contains the line "Only the best will >do" (with no indication that it's related to the motto). Take yer >pick. I shall try, try, and try again. And perhaps, one day, I'll get it right. Or not. SignaturePaul In bocca al Lupo! >> "Philip Eden" <philipATweatherHYPHENukDOTcom> had it ... >> [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > > Always be suspicious of a Scotchman and his usque. Ad nauseam. >> The current prospectus translates it as "working together to >> improve", and the Head's page contains the line "Only the best will [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > I shall try, try, and try again. And perhaps, one day, I'll get it > right. Or not. As the spider advised the Bruce. According to OED, "outmost" is a legit Scotticism, and was formerly English English, too. Just back from yet another offspring graduation, and still heaving gently from the latest in the fashion for pukey sloganising. "Durham University - Shaped by the past, creating the future." These marketing slugs are so demeaning: they're saying the founders got the original motto wrong, and they really only belong on tradesmen's vans. My knee-jerk, which may be as accurate as any other such reaction, is to blame Thatcher for them: it was her shake-it-up modernism that suddenly caused all those silly logos, and the lame slogans seem to go with the logos. SignatureMike. -- Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com "Mike Lyle" <mike_lyle_uk@REMOVETHISyahoo.co.uk> wrote : > Just back from yet another offspring graduation, and still heaving > gently from the latest in the fashion for pukey sloganising. "Durham [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > caused all those silly logos, and the lame slogans seem to go with the > logos. Did I ever mention the one that appeared for a decade or more on Bedfordshire's boundary boards? "Bedfordshire: Central to the Oxford-Cambridge Arc" In other words, in the middle of nowhere. Demeaning, you say, Mike. Couldn't agree more. I have a grudging admiration, though, for my alma mater's new slogan: "Provoke!" Philip Eden (Younger than the prime minister for the second successive day) In alt.usage.english, Philip Eden wrote: >"Mike Lyle" <mike_lyle_uk@REMOVETHISyahoo.co.uk> wrote : > [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] >I have a grudging admiration, though, for my alma mater's new >slogan: "Provoke!" My favourite was from the side of a tradesman's van in Groundhog Day: "Service Worth Waiting For". SignatureMike Barnes Cheshire, England >>> "Philip Eden" <philipATweatherHYPHENukDOTcom> had it ... >>> [quoted text clipped - 39 lines] >caused all those silly logos, and the lame slogans seem to go with the >logos. Yes and no, I think. Although Eighties Adland certainly played its part in getting logos and straplines (= non-AdlandE: "slogans") associated with products -- "branding consolidation" I think it was called -- the handmade-by-robotsish, Vorsprung-durch-Technicky, reaching-the-parts-type straplines of the day at least vaguely said something, even if that something was ultimately pointless fluff. I think it was the later (mid-'90s) spin culture of NuLabour that encouraged the crossover of cheap marketing ploys into such previously non-commercial ambits as education, health care and the yarts, where the pointedly pointless fluffiness is all the more annoying. SignatureArchie Valparaiso Who just read that back and doesn't really understand it, but perhaps someone might. >>>> "Philip Eden" <philipATweatherHYPHENukDOTcom> had it ... >>>> [quoted text clipped - 50 lines] >non-commercial ambits as education, health care and the yarts, where >the pointedly pointless fluffiness is all the more annoying. I'm not so sure myself, heading in the opposite directions to both Archie (politically) and Mike (chronologically). The one that first brought this to my notice - and I still clench my teeth at it - is the replacement of the "Ancient and Loyal" Borough of Wigan with "Progress with Unity" for the Metropolitan Borough. Now the tories were certainly responsible for all that new counties rubbish, Boundaryriverside and the like, but it was the labour council that seized on the idea of throwing out any suggestion of loyalty to the (spit) queen and replacing it with something more "progressive". SignatureOn-line canal route planner: http://www.canalplan.org.uk (Waterways World site of the month, April 2001) My Reply-To address *is* valid, though likely to die soon >Just back from yet another offspring graduation, and still heaving >gently from the latest in the fashion for pukey sloganising. "Durham >University - Shaped by the past, creating the future." These marketing >slugs are so demeaning: they're saying the founders got the original >motto wrong, and they really only belong on tradesmen's vans. The City of Orlando (Florida) recently scrapped their old slogan - "The City Beautiful" - and went for "Built for families. Made for memories". I can't help but feel that this would be a better slogan for Winnebago Industries, Inc. (a company that builds RVs: http://www.winnebagoind.com/products/winnebago/ ) >My knee-jerk, which may be as accurate as any other such reaction, is to >blame Thatcher for them: it was her shake-it-up modernism that suddenly >caused all those silly logos, and the lame slogans seem to go with the >logos. I'm quite willing to blame Thatcher for our slogan. However, I don't find that she visited Orlando. King Birendra of Nepal was here in 1983, and Prime Minister Thorstein Palsson of Iceland was here in 1988. Perhaps one of them made the suggestion. SignatureTony Cooper Orlando, FL >>>"Philip Eden" <philipATweatherHYPHENukDOTcom> had it ... >>> [quoted text clipped - 28 lines] > According to OED, "outmost" is a legit Scotticism, and was formerly > English English, too. I only heard the speech on TV yesterday and I thought it sounded like "utmost" with a funny accent. My first thought was that he was Canadian, but then I realised: Sean Connery before he had false teeth. SignatureRob Bannister In alt.usage.english, Robert Bannister wrote: >I only heard the speech on TV yesterday and I thought it sounded like >"utmost" with a funny accent. My first thought was that he was >Canadian, but then I realised: Sean Connery before he had false teeth. Did you hear Cameron's response to the PM's statement on Monday? Young Dave talked about Little Tone's "fragrant breeches". He didn't give any indication that he knew he had boobed. Don't they teach them anything at Eton these days? SignatureV Things can only get better > In alt.usage.english, Robert Bannister wrote: > [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > He didn't give any indication that he knew he had boobed. Don't they > teach them anything at Eton these days? Sniffing a chap's breeches would be compulsory in public school. SignatureRob Bannister In alt.usage.english, Robert Bannister wrote: >> Did you hear Cameron's response to the PM's statement on Monday? >>Young Dave talked about Little Tone's "fragrant breeches". >> He didn't give any indication that he knew he had boobed. Don't they >>teach them anything at Eton these days? > >Sniffing a chap's breeches would be compulsory in public school. Only for the first couple of years at my school. After that, you were allowed to opt out and play hockey instead. And I have a feeling that they play football rather than rugby at Eton. SignatureV Things can only get better >In alt.usage.english, Robert Bannister wrote: > [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > >And I have a feeling that they play football rather than rugby at Eton. Their Old Boys won the FA Cup in the good old days of whatever they were - hacking, hairy knees and moustaches, and tasselled caps. Six OE cup final appearances between 1875 and 1883, before the professionals took over. From where I'm sitting, Blackburn Rovers versus West Bromwich Albion in 1886 looks like the first all-professional FA Cup final. SignaturePaul In bocca al Lupo! >In alt.usage.english, Robert Bannister wrote: > [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > >And I have a feeling that they play football rather than rugby at Eton. Eton plays a variety of different kinds of football, including two exclusive to the place. The "Wall Game" is distinguished by the fact that scoring is rarer than in any other kind of organised sport - a goal has not been scored in the big annual fixture since 1909. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eton_Wall_Game There is also the "Field Game" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eton_Field_Game SignatureDon Aitken Mail to the From: address is not read. To email me, substitute "clara.co.uk" for "freeuk.com" [Dr Brown] > I only heard the speech on TV yesterday and I thought it sounded > like "utmost" with a funny accent. My first thought was that he was > Canadian, but then I realised: Sean Connery before he had false > teeth. Anyway, a Canadian would have said "upmost". "the Omrud" <usenet.omrud@gmail.com> wrote : > "Philip Eden" <philipATweatherHYPHENukDOTcom> had it ... > [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > Which I have done, but to no avail. The motto is in Latin, so > Gordon's rendition in English is up to him. Did you notice, too, the last words of that little smiley man who used to be prime minister ... what was his name now? ... "The end" uttered with a schwa-ed "the" and a hint of a glottal stop between the two words? Most people I know would say something like "thee-yend". Philip Eden > "Philip Eden" <philipATweatherHYPHENukDOTcom> had it ... > [quoted text clipped - 20 lines] > David > ===== In defence of Kirkcaldy High School can I point out that "Working together etc" and "Only the best etc". are not offered by KHS as translations of Usque Conabor but as additional mottos. Unfortunately this is not made explicit on their website and has thus led to the unfortunate impression that the school is not the excellent institution it was in my day fifty years ago and which I am sure it continues to be. Whether excellent instruction leads to an excellent PM we have yet to discover, but in the meantime my motto is "Floreat Gordon". [usque con abor] > In defence of Kirkcaldy High School can I point out that "Working > together etc" and "Only the best etc". are not offered by KHS as > translations of Usque Conabor but as additional mottos. [...] Yes, but what does it mean, then? I tentatively interpret* "conabor" as "and branch". ____________ *advised usage > [usque con abor] > [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > Yes, but what does it mean, then? I tentatively interpret* "conabor" > as "and branch". Is that based on the assumption that "uisque conabor" means "bourbon and branch"? SignaturePeter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org For an e-mail address, see my web page. >> [usque con abor] >> [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > Is that based on the assumption that "uisque conabor" means > "bourbon and branch"? Well, but probably no corncobs were harmed in the making of that usque. I suppose I was assuming that the coiner of the phrase was non-rhotic. Philip Eden filted: >Shirley I wasn't the only one to notice that Dr Brown, our new great >leader, promised to do his "outmost", was I? Is the "ut" in "utmost" the same as the one in "gamut"?...r Signature"You got Schadenfreude on my Weltanschauung!" "You got Weltanschauung in my Schadenfreude!" > Philip Eden filted: >> >>Shirley I wasn't the only one to notice that Dr Brown, our new great >>leader, promised to do his "outmost", was I? > > Is the "ut" in "utmost" the same as the one in "gamut"?...r Depends on how you pronounce "gamut". SignatureRay UK > Philip Eden filted: >> >>Shirley I wasn't the only one to notice that Dr Brown, our new great >>leader, promised to do his "outmost", was I? > > Is the "ut" in "utmost" the same as the one in "gamut"?...r In a word, no. (Etymologically speaking.) SignatureRoland Hutchinson Will play viola da gamba for food. NB mail to my.spamtrap [at] verizon.net is heavily filtered to remove spam. If your message looks like spam I may not see it. |
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