Urban Myths

[Sym7]

Are these all urban myths?

• Kangaroo means "What did he just say?" in Aboriginal
• Daddy long legs are the most venomous spider on the planet....their teeth are just too small to pierce skin
• "Freeze the balls of a brass monkey" comes from the triangular brass base to hold cannon balls in a pyramid shape on a ship. When then temperature dropped the brass contracted and the balls fell off.
• Daylight robbery comes from window tax and subjects used to brick up their windows to pay less tax
• Dutch courage is when the dutch used to come up the Thames into London (1665/6) during the plague to bring provisions to Londoners. They believed alcohol protected them against the plague and would therefore drinks copious amounts.
• GOLF stands for Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden
• First international cricket match was in US between US & Canada

Are any of these actually true? What about "baby out with the bath water" and the origin of the word "threshold"? Any others?

[HOGEPH]

Sym7 said:

• Daddy long legs are the most venomous spider on the planet....their teeth are just too small to pierce skin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSZdHdfF4G4

[Oily Nails]

Its that time of year again I guess.......

[Google [bot]]

Kangaroo comes from gangurru which means kangaroo.

[Steamer]

HOGEPH said:

Sym7 said:

• Daddy long legs are the most venomous spider on the planet....their teeth are just too small to pierce skin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSZdHdfF4G4

Thats got to be a myth! My dog used to eat them like they were going out of fashion (...and no that wasnt what knocked him off his perch)

My urban myth:

The word Yobbo comes from Youth of bad background origin...

...although I dont think thats fact.

[sadako]

The golf one is total crap. We weren't using acronyms when golf was invented. Acronyms are a relatively new thing.

[taldo]

www.snopes.com good urban myth site.

[eldar]

sadako said:

The golf one is total crap. We weren't using acronyms when golf was invented. Acronyms are a relatively new thing.

HMS Victory?

This acronym was used 1,800 years ago...

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~dekker/FISH.HTML

[Google [bot]]

Daddy long legs in the uk are crane flies. Daddy long legs here are an arachnid and this crap is commonly spouted without a shred of evidence. The myth probably started due to the fact they love to feast on redbacks.

[dr_gn]

BAHN-STORMA said:

eldar said:

sadako said:

The golf one is total crap. We weren't using acronyms when golf was invented. Acronyms are a relatively new thing.

HMS Victory?

This acronym was used 1,800 years ago...

Ahem... HMS is not an acronym it's an abbreviation (or initialism)!

HMS an abbreviation? Of what? I thought it stood for His/Her Majesty's Ship, and therefore is an acronym?

Edited by dr_gn on Thursday 28th January 23:08

[dr_gn]

BAHN-STORMA said:

dr_gn said:

BAHN-STORMA said:

eldar said:

sadako said:

The golf one is total crap. We weren't using acronyms when golf was invented. Acronyms are a relatively new thing.

HMS Victory?

This acronym was used 1,800 years ago...

Ahem... HMS is not an acronym it's an abbreviation (or initialism)!

HMS an abbreviation? Of what? I thought it stood for His/Her Majesty's Ship, and therefore is an acronym?

Edited by dr_gn on Thursday 28th January 23:08

I suggest you look up the definition of acronym!

ETA: and abbreviation!

Edited by BAHN-STORMA on Thursday 28th January 23:11

OK: From my Collins Gem English Dictionary:

Acronym: Word formed from initial letters. eg NATO, UNESCO, ANZAC.

Abbreviation: Shortened form of word eg Prof., Revd.

Therefore HMS is an acronym surely?

[Ganglandboss]

A young lad living with his parents popped a porno video in and sat there in the living room pulling the head off it with his headphones on. When he finished he noticed a steaming hot cup of tea at the side of him. His mum had woken up, come downstairs to make a cup of tea and left it for him whilst he was playing Japanese helicopter pilot.

A bloke borrows a porno video and wants to make a copy. Because he hasn't got a second video, he sets up the camcorder on a tripod and points it at the telly he then lent his mate the copy not realising there was a reflection from the screen of the telly where he could be seen having a crafty tug.

A lad was at a pretty wild party and wandered upstairs. There was a girl bent over hanging out of the window being taken from behind and a gang of lads waiting their turn. He decided to wait in the queue and after he had his turn, he went outside to see who the girl was to find it was his sister.

[eharding]

dr_gn said:

BAHN-STORMA said:

dr_gn said:

BAHN-STORMA said:

eldar said:

sadako said:

The golf one is total crap. We weren't using acronyms when golf was invented. Acronyms are a relatively new thing.

HMS Victory?

This acronym was used 1,800 years ago...

Ahem... HMS is not an acronym it's an abbreviation (or initialism)!

HMS an abbreviation? Of what? I thought it stood for His/Her Majesty's Ship, and therefore is an acronym?

Edited by dr_gn on Thursday 28th January 23:08

I suggest you look up the definition of acronym!

ETA: and abbreviation!

Edited by BAHN-STORMA on Thursday 28th January 23:11

OK: From my Collins Gem English Dictionary:

Acronym: Word formed from initial letters. eg NATO, UNESCO, ANZAC.

Abbreviation: Shortened form of word eg Prof., Revd.

Therefore HMS is an acronym surely?

No. If HMS was written as HAICHEMESS, and stood for..um, something starting with those letters...it would be.

NayTow, not EnAiyTeeOh.

Edited by eharding on Thursday 28th January 23:26

[dr_gn]

BAHN-STORMA said:

dr_gn said:

OK: From my Collins Gem English Dictionary:

Acronym: Word formed from initial letters. eg NATO, UNESCO, ANZAC.

Abbreviation: Shortened form of word eg Prof., Revd.

Therefore HMS is an acronym surely?

Correct [except the HMS bit] - key bit is 'word' in that they are pronounced as such.

HMS is pronounced H - M - S as letters, thus an initialism.

Technically, both acronyms and initialisms qualify as abbreviations.

Wiki said:

* acronym = an abbreviation pronounced as a series of constituent letters, e.g., SARS = severe acute respiratory syndrome
* initialism = an abbreviation pronounced wholly or partly using the names of its constituent letters, e.g., CD = compact disc

Sorry.... PH: Grammar Matters

Understood!

[cymtriks]

• The distance between the rails on a railway is based on the tracks left by a Roman chariot.

Pure myth though this is a common one.

• Cutting your hair makes it grow faster.

More myth, you just notice growth more when your hair is shorter!

[Getragdogleg]

eharding said:

HAICHEMESS

Its "aitch" there is no H in Aitch.

source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H

[stormrider2]

there was one about war statues. soldier died in battle = horse standing on back legs, soldier died in service = horse on 3 legs and soldier died years later = horse on all fours.

total myth though (or so stephen fry said on QI)

[Tadite]

Sym7 said:

• First international cricket match was in US between US & Canada

Wiki says this is true!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v_Canad...

I'm shocked.... Both by the fact that the US lost to Canada in anything but Hockey and also that you thieving Brits stole our game!

[Cock Womble]

Sym7 said:

What about "baby out with the bath water"?

In ye olden days, when a family had their weekly/monthly bath there was a strict pecking order; the man of the house would have first go in the clean, hot water, then the rest of the family in decending age order.

By the time it came to the turn of the youngest family member, the water was far from clean - dirty enough, in fact, to lose a small child in, so there was a real danger of "throwing the baby out with the bathwater."

[Dift]

Purple Aki