…that’s how long it’s been since I posted anything. Well, I’ve been busy, what with one thing and another, you know.
Nothing too weighty this time around – just a bit of fun. I must admit to having been quite stumped when asked by Madame Joad (who considers me something of an authority on English colloquialisms) what the ‘H’ in ‘Jesus H Christ’ stood for. My initial guess (wrong) was that it was there purely for emphasis, something like tmesis. I decided to research it on the oracle of all that is true and 100 per cent correct, the internet. To my utter surprise, several of the top Google hits put forward a very reasonable and plausible theory as to how the H got there. My favourite, not least because of the reference to the Lord’s Prayer: “Our father, who art in heaven, Harold be thy name”, is this site, which provides a very interesting and believable etymology for the origins of this whimsical piece of blasphemy.
Whiny-moany time now. The ‘F-Bomb’. Why the fuck is this a problem (see what I did there)? Seriously, there must be a billion other things worse than saying naughty words on telly. Usage of this inane phrase is largely contained in the US, where apparently nobody ever swears. I may be wrong, but I think the writers sneaked a few rude words into Pulp Fiction and The Big Lebowski. Maybe I’m just corrupted from having been exposed to swearing since my schooldays. Under duress, when happy or sometimes just because, people can and will say “fuck”. It’s such a hugely versatile word, it’s surprising it isn’t used more on TV. I’m not advocating an expletive-littered free-for-all on the telly, but I don’t think someone accidentally swearing warrants public outrage or large fines by broadcasting commissions (yes, FCC, I’m looking at you). I certainly think that comparing it linguistically with the ‘A-Bomb’ and the ‘H-Bomb’ is hyperbole.
Cankles are the new moobs: Ankles that look as thick as the calves have finally been given a name – cankles. A simple portmanteau word, but one that has quite a good ring to it, I feel. Moobs (man boobs) are soooo last year, darling, but news reaches me that if a man suffers from the aesthetic unpleasantness of cankles, they become ‘mankles’. Things are getting a bit silly now.
