Alexius said:
Alexius said:Well, yes, it existed before the Gay rights movement and was derived as you said. However, the tale goes that it was adopted for its acronymic potential & positive connotations.
As I'm not aware of its use as a euthemism for same-sexuality before that time, it strikes me as plausible.
Quixote said:Maybe someone could expand on this for me?
I recall seeing a TV programme a while ago- some history gubbins, and they mentioned that the Danelaw and the divide in rule between the North and South of England had a great influence on the inclusion of different words in english that basically mean the same thing.
Such as sick and ill being used to mean the same thing. Sick deriving from Scandinavian etc. and ill from [?].
Tehran street slang is bestseller
A slim volume chronicling the slang used on the streets of Tehran has become an unlikely bestseller.
The Persian Dictionary of Argot began as an academic study of new vernacular words in Farsi.
But its unravelling of code words used by Tehran's youth to circumvent social strictures has gripped parents, Iranian literary circles and the young alike.
It is now in its sixth edition, yet remains almost impossible to find in Tehran bookshops, visitors report
Red-blooded
Many code words devised by the street-savvy youth in Tehran relate, unsurprisingly, to the opposite sex.
Public contact between Iranian girls and boys is forbidden, so phone numbers are often furtively exchanged as youths drive around in single-sex vehicles.
And young Iranian men compare notes on the women they encounter using - rather chauvinistic - car metaphors, the dictionary reveals.
A "zero-kilometre" is a virgin, while an "overturned car" is a non-virgin.
A person's rear is alluded to with the word "hubcap", while legs are referred to as the "axle", reports the London Times.
A measure of ridicule is also reserved for some makes of cars, with an Iranian-made Peugeot 405 referred to as a "peasant bride".
'Want to be different'
Analysts have expressed surprise that the book got past censors at Iran's Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance virtually unchanged.
One suggested the book's approval could have been a last defiant act by the reformist government of Mohammad Khatami before a conservative regime takes over.
But another Iran watcher told BBC News Online the book was not highly subversive, but simply testified that - like youths all over the world - Tehran's teenagers want to create their own subcultures.
"They don't use slang because they're not allowed to be different, but because they want to be different," she said.
Iranian street slang
"Zero kilometre": virgin
"Overturned car": non-virgin
"Been in an accident": girl who is pregnant
"Hubcaps": Bottom
"Axle": Legs
"Headlights": Breasts
Breakfast said:I have been wondering about accents and languages- the way accents work in areas that have their own language seems quite close in pronounciation and often i the manner of phrasing, to their language. It seems to me that welsh person will often speak in a way that is quite similar to the form of welsh language even if they are not a welsh speaker, if that makes sense.
Does anyone know where accents actually do derive from?
is it true that some dutch dialect, namely friesian, is similar and/or intelliglible to some english dialects?
Nice web app (the 'Radio Garden' idea)
But I recommend you cheat, and use Youtube
Are you sure about the Faroes? oh well..
I believe their is a Shetlandish dialect that, like Scots, has a fair cliam to being more than a hybrid...but a linguist will have to sort that one out.
I thought Scots & Irish Gaelic were distinct enough to qualify as two branchs of a common root...or that the two had simply diverged sufficiently to render them distinct (like Norwegian, Danish & Swedish).
And isn't Manx (if it still lives) distinctly Scandinavian?
huh? huh?
(seriously, though, does anybody have a definitive answer?)