folksy (American) vocabulary -- mosey, jalopy, reckon on, ("I reckon")

[Hen Hanna]

I'm looking for a list of folksy (American) words
( that'd be difficult for non-Americans. )

mosey, jalopy, reckon on, ("I reckon")

nuts and bolts


( anything idiomatic "head in the sand" etc. )


Is there such a list on the net? HH

[Don Phillipson]

"Hen Hanna" <henh...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:179602ce-10ef-489d...@googlegroups.com...

> I'm looking for a list of folksy (American) words
> ( that'd be difficult for non-Americans. )

> . . .

> ( anything idiomatic "head in the sand" etc. )
>
> Is there such a list on the net? HH

Commonsense searching may turn up what you want. E.g.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_English#cite_note-51
suggests Random House used to maintain a "maven's word
of the day" -- but perhaps no longer. Many good web sites
have a disappointingly short life before their maintainers
get bored and give up.

It may be faster to go to a library, because Americans have
ever since Noah Webster been writing books about what is
distinctive about American English. You could start with
works cited at the URL above, notably Mencken: but I know
of no dictionary of American folksy speech or slang to
match Ralph Partridges for English English.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

[Hen Hanna]

On Wednesday, May 11, 2016 at 10:50:00 AM UTC-7, Don Phillipson wrote:

>
> > I'm looking for a list of folksy (American) words
> > ( that'd be difficult for non-Americans. )
> > . . .
> > ( anything idiomatic "head in the sand" etc. )
> >
> > Is there such a list on the net? HH
>
> Commonsense searching may turn up what you want. E.g.
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_English#cite_note-51
> suggests Random House used to maintain a "maven's word
> of the day" -- but perhaps no longer. Many good web sites
> have a disappointingly short life before their maintainers
> get bored and give up.
>
> It may be faster to go to a library, because Americans have
> ever since Noah Webster been writing books about what is
> distinctive about American English. You could start with
> works cited at the URL above, notably Mencken: but I know
> of no dictionary of American folksy speech or slang to
> match Ralph Partridges for English English.
> --

Thank you.


http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-14201796
> Americanisms: 50 of your most noted examples
(or 50 Americanisms That Brits Apparently Hate )

This list is interesting, but not what I'm looking for.

mosey, jalopy, reckon on, ("I reckon")

nuts and bolts ...
all bent out of shape

---- These expressions are so folksy-American that
If a novel translator used them in a dialogue between
non-Americans, it'd be strange.


http://boards.weddingbee.com/topic/idiomsfolksy-expressions-that-make-you-giggle/

“Hi! I’m here to look for some sex toys to spice things up with the wife. Apparently me and my penis just aren’t cutting the mustard!”


My grandma still uses “I’m busier than a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest.” It’s amusing to hear it come out of an 89 year old lady’s mouth. Oh, Grandma.



examples
Wow, I haven’t seen John since he was knee high to a grasshopper
Again?? Lord, she’s been doing that since Hector was a pup
Sweet biscuits of mercy, who left this mess in the kitchen??
Who chose this checkout line? That cashier is slower than molasses in January


http://boards.weddingbee.com/topic/idiomsfolksy-expressions-that-make-you-giggle


HH

[Athel Cornish-Bowden]

Translating novels sometimes raises unexpected problems. If novel set
in England contained the sentence "He drove up in a red car" it would
sound totally ordinary, and hardly worth mentioning. Translated
literally into French it would mean that he arrived in very flashy car,
and the translator would need to decide whether to translate "red" as
"white".

>
>
> http://boards.weddingbee.com/topic/idiomsfolksy-expressions-that-make-you-giggle/
>
>
> “Hi! I’m here to look for some sex toys to spice things up with the
> wife. Apparently me and my penis just aren’t cutting the mustard!”
>
>
> My grandma still uses “I’m busier than a one-legged man in a
> butt-kicking contest.” It’s amusing to hear it come out of an 89 year
> old lady’s mouth. Oh, Grandma.
>
>
>
> examples
> Wow, I haven’t seen John since he was knee high to a grasshopper
> Again?? Lord, she’s been doing that since Hector was a pup
> Sweet biscuits of mercy, who left this mess in the kitchen?? Who chose
> this checkout line? That cashier is slower than molasses in January
>
> http://boards.weddingbee.com/topic/idiomsfolksy-expressions-that-make-you-giggle
>
>
>
> HH

--
athel