Thursday, May 28, 2009

Quizzy (EDIT: now completed!)

Hellooo all...okay so it's (once again) been a while...does anyone even read this anymore???

I've been busy with tutes and lectures and, more recently, the Summer Eights regatta and investigating graduate options...too busy, it seems, to even take photos, as I had hinted to do last term. Sorry! I have some tentative plans to go dancing and punting - not simultaneously - this weekend, and maybe do some other photographic events. In which case I can put those up.

Until that point...quiz time! Brits are big on quizzes, as Mom can testify from the pub quiz and quiz machine and so on. Because I'm literary-minded, I'll make this about vocab...some alternate meanings, and some totally new words. You've all doubtless figured out lorry and lift and rubbish, and maybe a few of you know the naughtier British interpretation of fanny (and pants!), but let's see if any of these stump you. Answers to be given...when I remember. Prizes to be announced sometime after that. :D

***it's now June 9th and I've put in the answers instead of writing an essay. Hurrah!***
1) faff (v) to waste time, to mess about, to procrastinate (stop faffing about!); derivatives include nouns 'faff' and 'faffer', respectively the non-activity and the participant(s).
2) manky (adj) inferior, disgusting, worthless, dirty, unclean (the showers in Wolfson North are getting increasingly manky).
3) prang (adj) afraid, paranoid, or confused (this experimental drug trial pays £125, but I'm feeling a bit sleepy and prang); apparently also a WWII era verb meaning to collide, bomb, or shoot down.
4) cringe (adj) embarrassing or awkward - actually, the closest they've got here to 'awkward turtle' and derivatives (my tutor tried to tell a joke today...so cringe); additionally used as an interjection.
5) whinge (v) to complain, to whine (she was whinging all through dinner about her essays); also whinger, a whiny person.
6) pavement (n) the sidewalk (I got a £30 fine during Summer Eights week for cycling on the pavement).
7) chuffed (adj) delighted, pleased, proud, tickled (I'm well chuffed to have navigated this punt out of a hawthorn tree).
8) ickle (adj) small, miniscule, itty-bitty (Aww, has ickle Johnny got a scrape from punching that wall?).
9) courgette (n) zucchini (By the time he got through the queue, all the courgettes were either shriveled up or drowning in butter under the heat lamps).
10) gutted (adj) absolutely disappointed, devastated (We were all gutted to discover that beautiful Welsh John has a long-term, long-distance girlfriend); also an interjection meaning something along the lines of 'ouch!'
11) lush (n) a drunk, a sot, an alky...generally a flirtatious one (Goodness, this weekend I've discovered that Matthew is quite the lush!).
12) gormless (adj) stupid, idiotic, lacking composure, grace, and style, brainless (I know that speaker is supposed to be brilliant, but honestly he seemed more like a gormless twit to me when I heard him this Sunday); non-rhotic, also spelled 'gaumless'.
13) kit (n) clothing, usually of the uniform variety (Be sure to fill out the order form for the boating kit, because we're going to look smart in all blue and yellow stash.)
14) swot (v) to revise for an exam (prelims are just around the corner - have you started swotting?); noun form has a negative connotation, meaning a bookworm or a teacher's pet.
15) gawp (v) to stare at something, standing stock-still and mouth agape (the preteens are always standing around Cornmarket Street, gawping in the shop windows, so that I want to run them over on my bicycle).
16) fringe (n) bangs (Mel's new fringe is super cute...it makes her look even more like those manga people she's always drawing).
17) fit (adj) hot, sexy, attractive (yeah, yeah, like I said, you are really fit...but my gosh, don't you just know it).
18) lash (n) a pub-crawl, a night out of heavy drinking with the lads (don't laugh, but three pubs with Sam and Owen is about as good a lash as I can take); banter seems to be heavily involved.
19) aces (adj) excellent, brilliant, fantastic (I'm aces at croquet, even with Pimm's in hand).
20) minger (n) a particularly ugly individual (Is that our M2? Nope, not unless the 5-seat suddenly turned into an ancient minger); derives from ming, a hideous odor.
21) knackered (adj) exhausted (I spent all morning reading, all afternoon writing, and now I'm outside getting well and truly knackered indulging Anya in her art).
22) keen (adj) eager, enthusiastic, interested in someone or something (Dave seems a bit too keen on taking his tutor's dog for a walk and generally complying to her every irrelevant wish).
23) cock up (n) a complete mess, a mistake (What a cock up...Worcester's W2 not only mounted our boat and split the Lemon Tart in half, they also broke the cox); also a verb.
24) bender (n) a drinking spree (So we stay in for one night to catch up on these reading lists, and you tell me Alex went on one of his benders and ended in puking down Jake's stairwell?); being 'bent' is to be drunk, although in the UK nearly anything means to be drunk if said in a certain way...oh man I was so ___ed last night. Silly.
25) skint (adj) lacking funds, broke, hard-up for cash (Constance insists that she's totally skint, but I keep seeing these packages come in for her in the lodge, so must be she's feeding the ebay habit by selling her brain to psychology).
26) fagged (adj) tired out from extensive working (Our Welshy friend's got mooting, essays, the CU, campaigning, these rowing outings, and last night I saw him at Kukui...I don't know when he sleeps, but he must be fagged to death).
27) chunder (v) to vomit (We got to the start line of the race early enough to practice our chundering technique, leaning over the side of the boat and away from all the blades and riggers, although fortunately this skill was never put to use).
28) naff (adj) unstylish, worthless, lame, tacky, or lacking class (It may be sensible, but a jacket in cool weather? Very naff. We may allow you a cardigan and scarf, but it's a stretch.); also a verb, noun, and mild expletive that goes anywhere f*** can (Naff the naffing naffers).
29) filch (v) petty theft, stealing something of little value (There's been so much filching of hall silverware and glasses they've had to put up an angry notice).
30) kip (n) sleep, a place to sleep, a nap (We were all studying in the library, except for Kalpana, who I had let go back to my room for a kip); also a verb often followed by 'down'.

And the bonus was 'stonking', another adjective which means impressive or extremely (getting up on May Day to hear the choir sing from the top of Magdalen and seeing the Morris dancers was a stonking good time!).

Okayyy there you go - have fun!