Jump to content

Today I learned...


SpursRiot2012

Recommended Posts

  • Moderators

Yeah. It's complete bollocks. Don't make me have to mandate sources for this thread. However, as a result of going and looking it up myself! TIL that a club sandwich refers to that filling specifically. I always thought any sandwich where you use three bits of bread was a club.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members

It's not true about the club sandwich being an acronym. It's because they were a signature sandwich of the Union Club in New York.

TIL (well, yesterday, really) that John Michael Riva, the set designer of The Goonies, The Golden Child, The Colour Purple, three of the Lethal Weapon movies, two of the Spider-Man movies, two of the Iron Man movies, and a whole shit-ton of other big hits, was the grandson of Marlene Dietrich. 

Edited by Carbomb
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members
13 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

I doubt that's true. Probably a backronym.

Yep, it must be. It's named after the Union Club in New York.

 

edit: wow, mofos got there quick. Just goes to show how much bollocks it is

Edited by PunkStep
as quick as a cheetah
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members
3 minutes ago, PunkStep said:

Yep, it must be. It's named after the Union Club in New York.

 

edit: wow, mofos got there quick. Just goes to show how much bollocks it is

One of my favourite bits of bollocks to mess with people is to tell them that TUC biscuits and biscuit sandwiches were originally made by McVities for the Trades Union Congress meetings to show the biscuit industry's level of unionisation and solidarity, and were so popular they put them out on the general market.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members

A colleague at my old job insisted that 'NEWS' was an acronym for News, Entertainment, Weather, Sports. Before the whole lunch room had a chance to lampoon him, another loudly piped up with, "No, you twat, it stands for North, East, South and West!". Glad I wasn't there for long.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members

That's one that's been around forever. Backronyms are one of my irrational pet hates, because it's the sort of thing invariably spouted by someone with a sense of pub know-it-all smugness, and it's all just bollocks. That NEWS one in particular, considering the abbreviation includes the word "News".

There's also the claim that "CHAV" is an acronym for "Council House And Violent", or variants on that theme, rather than it having a much older, infinitely more interesting etymology than that.

The one I remember being told from back when I was a kid, that you still hear from time to time, is that "POSH" was derived from "Port Out, Starboard Home", which is equally bollocks.

And the absolute worst of the lot, and the most smug pub bore "fact" of all, is that "FUCK" was an abbreviation of "Fornication Under Consent Of The King", because of some invented time in the past when a couple could only have sex by royal contract, and the initials "FUCK" would be written up outside of their house. Let's ignore the fact that those people wouldn't have been able to read, and that no such law ever existed (as would be obvious to anyone with the brain to consider it for a second) - the word "fuck" is an older word in the English language than "fornication", and a far, far better one.

 

The thing to remember with all of this stuff is that widespread literacy is a relatively recent phenomenon - in the days when the majority of the population couldn't read, why would any word in popular usage be derived from an abbreviation that would only come about when the word was written down?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members
3 hours ago, BomberPat said:

That's one that's been around forever. Backronyms are one of my irrational pet hates, because it's the sort of thing invariably spouted by someone with a sense of pub know-it-all smugness, and it's all just bollocks. That NEWS one in particular, considering the abbreviation includes the word "News".

There's also the claim that "CHAV" is an acronym for "Council House And Violent", or variants on that theme, rather than it having a much older, infinitely more interesting etymology than that.

The one I remember being told from back when I was a kid, that you still hear from time to time, is that "POSH" was derived from "Port Out, Starboard Home", which is equally bollocks.

And the absolute worst of the lot, and the most smug pub bore "fact" of all, is that "FUCK" was an abbreviation of "Fornication Under Consent Of The King", because of some invented time in the past when a couple could only have sex by royal contract, and the initials "FUCK" would be written up outside of their house. Let's ignore the fact that those people wouldn't have been able to read, and that no such law ever existed (as would be obvious to anyone with the brain to consider it for a second) - the word "fuck" is an older word in the English language than "fornication", and a far, far better one.

 

The thing to remember with all of this stuff is that widespread literacy is a relatively recent phenomenon - in the days when the majority of the population couldn't read, why would any word in popular usage be derived from an abbreviation that would only come about when the word was written down?

My favourite backronym from school was that “pal” meant “personal arse licker”.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...