What not to say in England (was: Grammar Expert)

[psychic_serpent]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, Ladi lyndi <ladilyndi at y...> 
wrote:
> 
> --- Ali wrote:
> > As long as you don't talk about fanny packs,
> > boob tubes or bangs, I 
> > think you're be alright!
> 
> 
> Lynn:
> 
> Oh, I never talk about fanny packs (I dislike
> that term) since first you have to figure out if
> fanny is a proper name or an anatomical slang
> term.  Then you have to figure out if packs is a
> verb or a noun.  I mean really, does it mean that
> Fanny or your fanny is packing something or is it
> a pack that Fanny or your fanny made?
> 
> What is the English word for bangs?  Is it fringe
> or something like that?  Doesn't matter, it won't
> be any more confusing than the Dutch word which
> is pony.  It still startles me when the
> hairdresser asks whether I want my pony cut.
 
That's rather interesting, as it goes back to the origin of the 
word 'bangs' in American English.  Many times horses are 
given 'banged' tails, which means they've been cut to be rather 
short and blunt, ending in a straight line.  This term was then 
applied to women's hair when that style became au courant in the 
late nineteenth century.  People started off saying that they were 
going to 'bang' their hair in front, and the term for that bit of 
short hair over the brow became 'bangs.'  For someone who doesn't 
speak British, 'fringe' is still easy to understand, as it's a 
pretty good physical description of what that hair looks like (apart 
from the fact that we also now use 'fringe' to mean things on the 
edges or art/music that is rather avant garde).  It's a little 
harder to parse what is meant by 'pony' in this context, however, 
even when one knows that 'bangs' evolved from horses having their 
tails banged.

I believe that 'bang' is a synonym for intercourse in Britain, and 
that's why you would be making people snicker to refer to part of 
one's hair with the term 'bangs.'


--Barb