Today I was reading online and I came across a new phrase. A 'crooner' had a 'jacked up grill'. Although I understood all the words, they are all English, I could not work out the exact meaning of each part.
I guessed it was a singer with a spoiled smile, or bad teeth. Crooner is a slang word for singer. The singers and stars featured were all American. I could tell by the language that the writer was also American.
So I looked up the word. I found them in an 'urban dictionary'. That is an American phrase leaning in the opposite direction, towards Latin and Greek. Urban or suburban. I would say city slang or even call somebody street smart.
Jacked up, they translate as messed up. I suppose like a car is jacked up, needing repairs, in the repair shop, as Americans would say. In London I would say in the garage workshop.
New words are appearing on a daily basis.
At the opposite end of the scale, in London, England, if you read The Sunday Times (not the Singapore newspaper, the London Newspaper) you find large numbers of European words and Latin and Greek expressions.
German
For example, yesterday evening, reading in bed, I came across the word zeitgeist. German. I had heard it before, but could not remember what it meant. With your mobile phone handy you can look up any word. A mobile phone is what I like to think of as 'a walking encyclopaedia' - a phrase we used to use to describe people who were very knowledgeable. I learned from my mobile dictionary that zeitgeist could be translated as the mood or spirit of the times.
Latin
I read on and find the phrase 'Status quo'. If you want to preserve the status quo you wish to preserve the status or situation or standing of the people or area, as it is now or was recently.
French
Recherché. French. Meaning unusual.
You travel around the world with language by peeping at the news and getting distracted by the features on your laptop or mobile phone before you have even had breakfast.
Sorting Paper From Holidays and Exhibitions
I tried to clear my desk to start work and went through brochures in a box. I had picked brochures on Malta, and more recently added to the box a pile of papers from the London wine Fair, featuring wines from America and all over the world.
Spanish
Stuck on the back page of a leaflet from a wine fair I found a tiny disc showing the Catolica Agricola, Bodega Cooperativa. Even with minimal Spanish you could guess that this meant Catholic, something to do with agriculture (from ager, Latin for field). From my studies of wine and visits to vineyards and Spanish wineries around Rioja and other parts of Spain I know that a Bodega is a wine domain, literally a cellar, like a chateau, a place producing wine.
It was a very brief slide show of their vineyards and barrels and awards for their wines , with back ground music. We froze the display so that we could read the labels.
Angela Lansbury
So I looked up the word. I found them in an 'urban dictionary'. That is an American phrase leaning in the opposite direction, towards Latin and Greek. Urban or suburban. I would say city slang or even call somebody street smart.
Jacked up, they translate as messed up. I suppose like a car is jacked up, needing repairs, in the repair shop, as Americans would say. In London I would say in the garage workshop.
New words are appearing on a daily basis.
At the opposite end of the scale, in London, England, if you read The Sunday Times (not the Singapore newspaper, the London Newspaper) you find large numbers of European words and Latin and Greek expressions.
German
For example, yesterday evening, reading in bed, I came across the word zeitgeist. German. I had heard it before, but could not remember what it meant. With your mobile phone handy you can look up any word. A mobile phone is what I like to think of as 'a walking encyclopaedia' - a phrase we used to use to describe people who were very knowledgeable. I learned from my mobile dictionary that zeitgeist could be translated as the mood or spirit of the times.
Latin
I read on and find the phrase 'Status quo'. If you want to preserve the status quo you wish to preserve the status or situation or standing of the people or area, as it is now or was recently.
French
Recherché. French. Meaning unusual.
You travel around the world with language by peeping at the news and getting distracted by the features on your laptop or mobile phone before you have even had breakfast.
Sorting Paper From Holidays and Exhibitions
I tried to clear my desk to start work and went through brochures in a box. I had picked brochures on Malta, and more recently added to the box a pile of papers from the London wine Fair, featuring wines from America and all over the world.
Spanish
Stuck on the back page of a leaflet from a wine fair I found a tiny disc showing the Catolica Agricola, Bodega Cooperativa. Even with minimal Spanish you could guess that this meant Catholic, something to do with agriculture (from ager, Latin for field). From my studies of wine and visits to vineyards and Spanish wineries around Rioja and other parts of Spain I know that a Bodega is a wine domain, literally a cellar, like a chateau, a place producing wine.
It was a very brief slide show of their vineyards and barrels and awards for their wines , with back ground music. We froze the display so that we could read the labels.
Angela Lansbury
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