[HPforGrownups] Re: Britishisms, swearing

[Edblanning at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 40585

The Random Monkey:
> I've noticed that, too. It stumped me the first time I realized that 
> measurements were in the american system. 

I'm trying to think of some examples. Miles? Pints of water?, Half a pound of 
mandrake leaves? Is that the sort of thing you mean?

Britain only went over to the metric system relatively recently. Yes, school 
children have done their measurements in centimetres and litres etc for some 
time, so that my children aren't very familiar with the imperial system at 
all. 
Unfortunately.
But the two systems have lived side by side for ages. There are still fuddy 
duddies like me who naturally think in the imperial system (I am of the 
generation who was taught to use both at school). I still cook in imperial, 
for instance, although I really must get a set of metric weights as now, but 
really only very recently, recipes tend to be published only with metric 
measurements. Same with petrol. It's only in very recent years that the price 
of petrol has been displayed only per litre and not per gallon.
The mile, fortunately, has survived, although I don't suppose it will be long 
until the European Union finds a reason for outlawing it! The supermarkets 
display the equivalent price per pound of goods, but it is *illegal* actually 
to sell loose goods by the pound. It's a mad world.
Oh, and most importantly, beer is still sold by the pint. If the EU dare to 
try and make us buy it by the litre, it could be the straw that breaks the 
camel's back. ;-)

Given the facts that the WW is rather (did I say 'rather'? I mean 
'extremely') old-fashioned and that the potions are contained in old books, 
use of the imperial system is only to be expected.

Incidentally, when you say 'American measurements', that's not exactly true. 
If you put an American pint of water in your potion, you might find Snape 
making some sarcastic comments. The English pint is one of the few things 
that is actually slightly larger than its American equivalent! ;-)

> One thing that interested me... Unless I'm mistaken, there wasn't any 
> swearing at all in the books until the fourth one. I know before that, 
> there was mudblood, but that has little significance to us, and people 
> toss it around here like it was nothing; Ron said something once that 
> made Hermione gasp "Ron!" but that's implying a curse, not saying one. 
> But in the fourth book... Well, I didn't keep count, but I know Bill 
> said, "Noone gives a damn what I look like..." and Ron said "Damn, 
> it's [potions] still with Slytherin" (And Hermione made no comment on 
> that one). I believe there was one other... Don't remember it off hand 
> though.
> 
> One final question: Is "bloody" a British swear word or not? I've 
> heard it both ways.

I'd agree with LD, that they're sort of acceptable, or 'half' swear words.
Yes, they're a little old-fashioned. 
But....oh dear....Look, LD, I don't wear a bowler, or drive a Rolls and I'm 
certainly not a posh London type (what do you mean, a Sloane?) but they're 
exactly the type of swear words I use.
Well, I did say I was a fuddy duddy.

Eloise
Who actually drives a Chrysler and is irritated that in order to get 
meaningful information out of the little on board computer thingy she has to 
flick backwards and forwards between the US and European settings.

> 
> 




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]