General Chat

Giddy Aunt.

Mother's Ruin.

Tosspot.

Sneck Lifter.

Shot-Clog.

Fred was once telling me about a pub out in the wilds of West Sussex that would cook up a stew once a week and call it 'shackle'. He said it was nothing special but the locals flocked in for some on 'Shackle Night'.

Although I had never heard stew called shackle it made me understand how a word I had wondered about came about.

I would imagine that the old breeding ram of a flock would be kept tupping, producing his good lambs for as long as possible and that would have made him a bit tough, poor chap.

When he had tupped his last he would not be wasted but his meat would probably need hacking apart a bit and it would also need a pretty good simmer to soften it up so it would not be too pretty to look at.

I bet it would be made into something that was a bit, well, ramshackle.

Some years back we had a young lady from the New York office working on attachment in London.

On her first week she was about to go to a customer meeting with the manager she had been assigned to.

Just as they were about to leave he said he needed to pick up a rubber from his desk. For a few seconds she was frozen to the spot in shock until he returned with an eraser in his hand.

"Wait a bit".

My OH uses the term "I could murder a cup of tea" (probably should be "murder FOR a cup).

This is an interesting site, showing the different styles of chesterfields available in N America.

I was interested in the comment in one description that chesterfields are not noted for being very comfortable as the back is vertical.

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/10-charming-chesterfield-sofas-177886

Chesterfield is used here for a certain type of sofa, although OH and ! have never used it.

As Brenda said, the back is usually level with the arms, back is has deeply embedded buttoning, arms are rolled to the outside, and they are usually leather although modern ones are now more commonly fabric covered.

Some people however use chesterfield for any kind of sofa as that is the word their parents used .............. in other words, it has become an acceptable word for any style of 3 person seating.

We use settee or sofa, depending on which word comes to mind first, using the alternative if our listener seems bemused by the first name we use! That doesn't matter what size it is .......... we have a 4-seater settee and a 2 seater. Some people call the 2-seater a love seat.

OH and I have a couple of 2 seater settees (or sofas) that fold out to form a bed, and we always use the word hide-a-bed for those. Other friends say a "love seat that is a hide-a-bed".

There are a couple of Chesterfield's in the USA, in particular Virginia and Missouri. Mind you, Wiki quotes this as a source for its name

"Chesterfield Sofa". The Traditional English Chesterfield Company. Archived from the original on 15 June 2012. Unfortunately the link to the original source is defunct.

Their site http://www.englishchesterfieldcompany.com/en/about-us/ states that "Many of our team of over 40 full time craftsmen and women, have been with the company since it’s origins." :-S

I think Chesterfiels are certain types of sofa...the sort with a button back all level with the arms,a lot of them are in leather.I had one in the 70s
Im sure the same name still applies in the UK...maybe they were first produced in,or near Chesterfield?

Yes, AM, it is used to describe a certain style of sofa.

And here's another ...

Durham ....

Durrum durrum, durrum durrum durrum ... Signature tune of the Pink Panther.

:-D :-D :-D

Another town name that has travelled abroad, but is rarely heard here is Chesterfield. I would call it a sofa/settee/couch, but my sister, in Canada, now calls it a chesterfield and I believe the same name is used in USA.

This travels .....

English Oxford Dictionaries:

1. Manchester goods - cotton goods of the kind manufactured in Manchester (sometimes Manchester wares).

2. Early 18 C. earliest use found in the original journals of the House of Commons.


In a book published in 1983 in the USA, entitled

Reforms in the Caribbean 1700-1788 ... By Altagracia Ortiz

p 89: In 1770, he even banned cotton manufacturers including Manchester goods .....


It seems that the phrase 'Manchester goods' is known around the globe.

I'm hazarding a guess now that those southern USA States that had cotton-fields also used the expression.

The East India Company (and the West) transported more than cotton though, as we all know.

'Manchester goods' also an expression used in India.

From an Indian Social Sciences website:

Q. Give three reasons for the decline of Indian textile industry by the end of the 19C.

A 1. As cotton industries developed ... They pressurised the govt to impose import duties on cotton textiles so that MANCHESTER goods could sell in Britain ...

A 4. MANCHESTER goods in India: Cotton weavers ....

So, as far as foreign visitors to England are concerned, it seems that Manchester may mean more to some of them than simply football. :-D

It's a small world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottonopolis

Interesting article about Manchester.

maggie .....

I don't think most English people would have heard it, unless they had been to Australia or New Zealand and gone shopping. You only see the sign "Manchester" or "Manchester Department" in stores, or something like "Manchester Sale" in ads in newspapers, flyers, etc.

People talk about sheets, pillow cases, bed linens, etc, not "manchester"

I've never heard of the term, but then, I'm a 'Sooth Moother' (Shetland saying) or 'Soft Southerner' - polite term - (anywhere South of Watford) :-D :-D

I've just been googling ........ and one theory seems to be that crates of bed linens arriving in Australia would be labelled just "Manchester", ie indicating their point of origin.

Those crates and contents were often simply called "Manchester goods"

"Manchester goods" became "Manchester"

I was confused at seeing "Manchester department" when we were living in Melbourne in the mid-1950s

I believe that it dates back to the early settlers, who referred to cotton goods in that fashion, from Manchester being the centre of cotton trading.

I was raised in Oldham, and there were lots of cotton mills back in those days. The Cotton Trading Exchange was in Liverpool, but I think that traded raw cotton.


Could "Manchester" have been a name used in England a couple of hundred years ago for bed linens ................ I'm thinking those early settlers must have got it from somewhere.

'Taking it on the chin' could be painfully misinterpreted.

'Kecks', or 'Cacks' are pants, sorry knickers, in our house.

The word 'Doofers' I believe has a different meaning all over the country - let alone confusing to foreigners :-D

My dad (Cornish) used to call horse poo 'doofers', as it would 'doofer' the garden :-D

Descriptions of bread products are confusing even across the UK.

Barm cakes, tea cakes, bread cakes, stotties = types of bread roll
Muffins, oven bottoms=also bread rolls.
Not to be confused with American muffins, which are cakes.
Or with English, or toasting muffins, which you toast.
Crumpets are similar to pikelets, which you also toast.
Tea cakes often have dried fruit in them, but are bread.

Then there's black pudding, which is a savoury dish made from offal, and white pudding which is similar.