Vee, I think I shall skip that one!

I was very lucky. After a few months in Melbourne with the Aussie family, I went with three other young immigrants to Sydney. We rented a lovely waterside apartment in Vaucluse which happened to be an upmarket area, as I discovered when I bought a sofa bed for occasional guests.

I mentioned my address for the delivery and got an almost servile reaction!

When my husband and I sailed to Perth in 1963 there were a number of disgruntled former Ten Pound Pom immigrants on the ship, going back to Britain. They hadn't settled happily and were returning after they had completed the mandatory two years.

Return sooner and the full outward fare had to be repaid.

Vee, a columnist in our local paper wrote a review of Ten Pound Pom and said all the Australian characters were horrible and he hope watchers in Britain weren't taking it as complete truth.

Kath, I have learnt to take everything on TV (even the news) with a pinch of salt. If it is any consolation many/most of the UK characters were none too pleasant either.

People of my generation (just post war) and earlier always regarded Aus as a land of no-nonsense and opportunity . . esp. my Mother who had had an Aussie boyfriend during the 'conflict' and told us tales of his total lack of respect for the BS that went on in the army. eg when hungry for a decent meal a group of them pinched a machine gun, aimed it at a sheep on Salisbury Plain (huge army training centre) and organised a BBQ.

That doesn't surprise me at all! But a machine gun? Lamb mince is what they would have got!

I could quote a number of similar stories. One of my favourites is of a VERY senior officer who told how he was shouted at coarsely as he leaned too far over a parapet in a war zone, thus putting himself in danger of a possible sniper.

"Birdie, pull your F***ing head back." Rang out an Aussie voice.

"Good heavens!" said the aghast person the VIP told "What did you do?"

"Pulled my f***ing head back." of course!"

I checked to find who Birdie was and this must have happened in WW1 .

In WW2 a group of drunk Aussie soldiers moved off a footpath to go around some British officers but never saluted them. When this was drawn to his attention, the ranking officer said that this was an improvement as "their fathers in WW1 wouldn't have gone around us!"

One thing I noticed about Australian men in the 1960's was their politeness to women.

In 1990 my husband raised his Akubra hat to a policewoman in Venice when he asked her for a street direction and I saw how gratified she was with the attention!

Enough stories!

Annpan, a similar story. The Aussie 'boyfriend' out with my Mother saw what he described as a pipsqueak officer coming towards them. King's Regulations state that ALL officers must be saluted when in uniform. Aussie slowly raised his hand to his hat brim and the officer also raised his palm in a quivering salute . . . then Aussie just pushed his hat back . . . no salute . . . and left the officer probably red and angry.

My Mother who could be equally contrary and was serving in the women's 'Signals' corp got round the saluting problem by never wearing her cap in the office.

In the UK it is the cap-badge that is saluted (representing the monarch) rather than the person. People out of uniform never salute.

I think 'raising of hats' has almost gone for good over here. Some people/young men seem to have baseball caps welded to their skulls.

At the recent lying-in-state of the late Queen shown live on TV a youngish man with a female was in the queue. He was politely asked to remove his headgear and his companion had to hold on to the cap to prevent him from putting it back on. The moment they moved away from the coffin it was back on his head.

Another new word; from Annpan Akubra hat. Had to look it up. Hope it had corks round the brim!

Not these days!

Men mostly wear baseball caps if anything but my son inherited his Dad's Akubra and wears one as a trademark when on stage singing Country songs.

It is a feature on the cover of his CD album which shows the back view of a man carrying a guitar case heading down The Neverending Road, the title of the song we wrote.

As you would have seen, the Akubra is a big shady hat worn by men and also country women.

mountweazel

/ˈmountˌwēzəl/

noun

• 1.an invented or fake entry in a reference work, inserted as a joke or to help the publisher detect plagiarism.

Bon, I love that word! I'll have to find some way to use it now. :)

I have come across a couple of those when I read the notes for students to help me understand classic book writing. I was going to write corrections but realised they could be deliberate mistakes to trip up the cheaters!

Annpanagain.....It seems that many students now use AI to write answers and essays, changing some words to "own" them. The teacher/professor's jobs are so much more difficult now. How can they assess skills and knowledge if access to the internet is at each student's constant disposal ( smart watches being a biggie).

When I took an Italian class at Binghamton University a few years ago ( I was 72 ! ) we were assigned to write an essay over the weekend . As I stood outside the classroom waiting to enter, one of the students asked if I'd done the essay. I replied that I had. She then asked " Did you use Google translate ? " I was shocked ( as a former teacher ) ! She then informed me that this is how she did her own essay........wrote what she wanted to say then had Google translate it into Italian ! I imagine any professor worth their salt would spot this immediately. This University has very high standards and the brightest of brights attend.

Not very encouraging, is it?

I read that over here would-be driving test 'takers' are paying people to do both the practical and written test for them. As long as your photo ID roughly fits that of the person who turns up at the test place few questions are asked.

Narthex.

I am familiar with nave and apse but had never seen this word before .

Bon, the narthex is similar to the lobby in a theater. At the Methodist church where I worked, the robing room, bride's room and restrooms were off the narthex.

Donna

Okay......thanks. We call that the "gathering space" in our church.

re narthex Most churches in England are very/quite old and any extra facilities other than a vestry are unlikely to be found.

eg when our daughter was married in a local church (and it was only a hundred and fifty or so years old) the vicar apologised for the lack of loos. They had wanted to add them but the 'Listed Buildings' people had said it would change the ambience of the building. Members of the congregation, were therefore offered 'Gentlemen' behind the gravestones on the left and 'Ladies to the right'

A new word for me is aesthetician which doesn't even come up on spellcheck. It appears to refer to a person I would call a beautician . . . but sounds grander and more 'medical',

Vee, near my sister's apartment they are building an ob/gyn office, and the sign says "ob/gyn and aesthetics." We're wondering what the aesthetics might be, but a little afraid to ask. LOL

That's a funny story about the lack of facilities at the church. Over here you can rent a trailer with air conditioning and several stalls for each side.

Donna

Vee.....an aesthetician is someone who gives facials, manicures and pedicures.

That would be a strange combo with OBGYN !

The gravestone story is strange. Not sure I'd feel comfortable tinkling in a graveyard !

Two words found in today's general knowledge crossword.

PADUASOY a fancy expensive silken material

and

GREMIAL a cloth placed on the lap of a bishop during a consecration service.

I doubt that I will be using either word in general conversation any day soon.

Vee.....LOL....yes those two would be tricky to slide into casual conversation !

I wonder if the paduasoy is a takeoff from the word peau de soie

Aha !

A quick search found this , which confirms my suspicion :

Paduasoy or padesoy[1] (/ˈpædjuəsɔɪ/; French: peau de soie) is a luxurious strong corded or grosgrain silk textile that originated in Early Modern Europe. The term paduasoy first appeared in English in 1663.[2]

Well done yoyo, I hadn't heard of a peau de soie!

It is sometimes mentioned in Middle Age historical novels, worn by noblemen and women.

Judging by paintings, they had gorgeous gear! I wonder how the jewellers drilled holes in the pearls that they wore. You can see pins through, holding them onto the materials so they were not stuck on.

Vee .....peau de soie is french for " skin of silk" ( literally). It was often used to describe bridal gowns back in the day when newspapers had an actual social page devoted to local happenings.

paucitypô′sĭ-tē

1. Smallness of number; fewness.
2. Scarcity; dearth.
3. Smallness of quantity; scantiness.

Saw this in our daily paper 'Letters to the Editor' section.

It refers to a parcel waiting at a sortation facility and the writer asks if this is the latest eg of 'corporate speak'.

The next letter refers to a flyer from their energy supplier "The fixed prices we can offer change unpredictably and regularly" . .. .

" the contumelious tension of his mouth......"

A Certain Age by Beatriz Williams

Again from the G K crossword anadromous (no help from spell check) relates to the habits/life-cycle of salmon moving from fresh to sea water.

Another clue/question was "What is the French for violin tuning pegs?" I must have missed that French lesson.

And you may know the word for the branch of metaphysics that deals with the nature and principles of existence and pure being . . . but I don't.

perservating...........continuing

The Mitford Affair by Marie Benedict . She used this many times in her novel. I felt like it was the sort of word that wears thin when seen too often.

Here's one for you - "willowily". In The Princeling by C Harrod-Eagles. I assume from context she means like a willow.

Donna

Donna, I've heard of willowy meaning slender but not willowily.

Yeah, Vee, I think she made that one up!

Go to adverbsr/adverbs•12 yr. agoWishiCouldReadJoin

Willowily

In the cinematographic twilight, Bernard risked a gesture which, in the past, even total darkness would hardly have emboldened him to make. Strong in his new importance, he put his arm around the Head Mistress's waist. It yielded, willowily.

-Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, 1932

I ran across a new word in CJ Cherryh's latest Foreigner book: jussive. It's a grammatical term for verbs, indicating a mild command in the subjunctive using first & third person, rather than the second-person imperative.

The latest crossword word that I am unfamiliar with is susurrate. After looking it up I see it means 'the noise made by grass/leaves/wind' rustling or (and this is the answer) whispering. Apparently it is seldom written down, usually just spoken.

I shall attempt to bring it into several conversations.

donnamira's word jussive above and it's place in grammar means nothing to me. I seemed to have missed out on subjunctives in whatever person and wouldn't know what to do with an imperative. Is this taught in US schools . . . apart from Latin classes?

Vee, I have the impression that written grammar was treated differently in US schools and an example I saw was so much clearer than the way I was taught in my UK High School, where I barely grasped it.

I learned speaking grammar from the BBC!

I have come across susurrate in novels which describes a country scene and the lovely humming chorus in Madam Butterfly.

Vee, if I learned any grammar such as Donnamira mentioned, I don’t remember it! I vaguely remember diagramming sentences in maybe 3rd or 4th grade, but don’t remember any of it other than subject and predicate. 😊

I’ve heard the word susurrus, but not susurrate.

Donna

I am chuckling as I think about ever using the words "susurrate" or "jussive" .

Most of my friends have a difficult enough time with 25 cent words !

I love words and enjoy using a wide variety but those two are not going to make the list !

hmm, I wrote a nice little reply a couple days ago, and it just wouldn't post, even after 2 tries. Let's try again (yay for optimism)

Vee, I learned my grammar (in particular, the subjunctive case) in my high school French classes. We did get some grammar (things like gerunds and past participles) in junior high (now called middle school), but by the time I got there, things like diagramming sentences were already old-hat and dropped from the curriculum. Which disappointed me! I thought diagramming sentences looked like so much fun when my sister had to do it.

A good explanation of the subjunctive is here: What is the Subjunctive Mood? An Explainer | Merriam-Webster

And back to the thread topic, I learned several new words while reading Beryl Markham's memoir, West With the Night, but the only one I can bring to mind at the moment is nonage - childhood. As for susurrus, that was one I gleaned from a thesaurus back in high school, but I also found it in the first Terry Pratchett Tiffany Aching book, which I think was the first time I actually saw it used. The verb form, susurrate, is a new one to me, though.

Donnamira - It's interesting that you mention learning grammar in French class. I had the same experience. As I learned French grammar in high school, the English grammar lessons I'd sat through in earlier English classes suddenly became clear to me.

I grew up with the rules. My mother was a teacher and death on grammar. Never, ever say different than--one thing differs from another, not than it. Plus, she could diagram anything.

Another one new to me and again from a crossword is littoral - relating to or situated by the shore of a lake or sea. DH knew it as he used to teach biology back in the day.

I loved diagramming sentences and cursive writing.

Hopefully someone will come to their senses and get these back in our schools.

bise, kissing on both cheeks as a greeting. I have seen it in French movies but did not know there was a word for it!

In case anyone needs to know, here is a complete guide to "la bise" !

https://www.frenchlearner.com/culture/la-bise/

palaver /pə-lăv′ər, -lä′vər/

noun

1. Idle chatter.
2. Talk intended to charm or beguile.

That's interesting @yoyoybon_gw. The Oxford Dictionary defines palaver as

palaver/pəˈlɑːvə/ informalnoun: palaver

1. unnecessarily elaborate or complex procedure."there's a lot of palaver involved" :fuss

fuss and bother bother commotion trouble rigmarole folderol ado song and dance performance to-do carry-on carrying-on kerfuffle hoo-ha hullabaloo ballyhoo business pantomime hoopla

1. historical: an improvised conference between two groups, typically those without a shared language or culture.

verb: palaver; 3rd person present: palavers; past tense: palavered; past participle: palavered; gerund or present participle: palavering

1. talk unproductively and at length."it's too hot for palavering"

My mother in law frequently uses it in the first sense.

I like hoo-ha.

I wonder if a word like " ennui" is more likely to be read than to be said ?

( does anyone know what these types of words are called ? Seems it's " missel" or something similar ??)