Talking the Talk: "Never encircle a prince on a hill"

Here are some "British" sayings. Idioms. Proverbs. Something.

[Note: at first I googled for "English" proverbs. Because that's what I wanted to post about. The results came back 90% American. I guess "English" is a language to google and not a country or a people. I had to google "British proverbs" to get google to give me some English proverbs. Note the clear racism here, Adullamite.]

Anyway, first I will give the idiom or saying and then I will tell you what I think it means. Finally, I may give you what it actually means. Or you may give me the correct answer in a comment.

[Note to visitors: you don't have to comment about this stuff; you can comment about frozen pumpkins if you want to. Or Moravia. That's it, tell us where Moravia is. Just thank you for coming.]

If I do decide to give the correct answers at the bottom of this post, I promise not to mention 1887 PM Robert Salisbury.

1. "Bob's your uncle."

This means your father has a brother named Robert.

2. "Keep your pecker up."

This is traditionally what the English say when they feed pigeons in the park.

3. "Big girl's blouse."

A comment made by old men on a park bench about passing lasses: "Oi mate, she has to wear a big girl's blouse, eh?" And then they both chortle.

4. "Burning the candle at both ends."

Needs more light than a candle gives off.

5. "His eyes are bigger than his belly."

The bloke has humongous eyes.

6. "Sleep tight."

Go to sleep drunk.

7. "Gordon Bennett."

Beats me.

8. "Stone the crows."

Beats me.

9. "Talk the hind legs off a donkey."

This probably means he talks a lot.

10. "Do you want a brew?"

This means, "Do you want a beer?"

11. "As queer a a nine bob note."

This means nothing.

12. "Popped his clogs."

Stunned his mullet? (It sounded Australian, but Australian for croak is cork it, no? Maybe "cark it.")

13. There was only 12 and I always need 13 for my lists, so I will put one down here that I already know: "Bugger this for a game of soldiers."

It means (roughly) to lure a group of manly military personnel into a gay bar.

[Final note: I've decided not to put the real meanings down here after all.]

Getting back on topic for just a minute...

I remember when I first started this blog as a means of collecting some of the differences between British English and American English (hence the name of the blog), and how I used to just ask you to give me words that were different. Looking back, that was pretty naive: how could you know? You had no idea that you talked funny! Of course, we came up with a pretty long list of the obvious words and phrases that both of us know are different. Then we involved the Australians and South Africans a bit, because their English derived from your brand, mostly (I didn't think of India for some reason, but we had one Indonesian.) But those had drifted a bit far afield from the way you speak today. Australian is pretty much a world of it's own, for example. We put together quite a list, though, before I stopped asking you to think of words for me.

Most of you know I have never stopped collecting your words though; I just learned that the only way to do it was to have written "conversations" with you, and then pore over what you write, both to me and in your blog posts. By doing this, I finally began to get what I was really looking for - the TRUE differences in the way we speak, and the REAL words and phrases you use every day; words that you have no idea are different to an American's ear. I have been skulking you. But most of you know that. Anyway, my collection is of much higher quality now.

From time to time, I need to ask you what something means, when I can't find the word or phrase in one of those special "dictionaries" or when it isn't obvious from the context. Today is one of those days. I think I know what the phrase means, but I want to make sure, and it isn't in the special dictionary that I could see. Here are a couple of extracts from my (our) friend Sage's blog today. Help me on these, please.

1. "Nothing could be done in the dark, so we had a couple of portable fires to warm up the bedroom and living room but we were still very cold when we went to bed..."

2. "I made roast chicken for tea, with roasted potatoes and carrots... and served them with some mashed swede. I should have also done some runner beans but forgot."

Okay, I'm guessing the first is what we would call "space heaters", but I want to make sure. Swede, I remember from before. Runner beans I've forgot if I ever knew.

I am reluctant to just ask Sage on her blog because it will sound stupid to her readers in the comments.

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Okay, now I will go back off-topic as usual tomorrow.