Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Me too, please?

Me too, please ...

I know the one below but that didn't work ...

Decryption Key
A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z
(letter above equals below, and vice versa)

Aha! Now I know the location of the Ark of the Covenant!

Yes, I can confirm spadge in the precise meaning Michael cites.

Bit of a puzzle how Swedish kalops – which immediately came to my mind too – could end up in English as collops, unless perhaps through the medieval Low German seafaring connection – some of the first English words that can be traced around the Baltic came in that way, so why not also in the reverse direction. The seafood lobscouse, for example (which I believe underlies Scouse for Liverpudlian), turns up in Finnish as lapskoussi, probably via (Low) German labskaus, and is claimed by Rauma, a small but formerly important harbour town on the southwest Finnish coast, as its 'traditional food', something which every self-respecting municipality has to have, rather like state flowers and state birds etc in the US. So if a foody name can go one way, then I guess it can go the other way too.

(I thought for a moment it must be Sejintenej who made the kalops connection – I've been meaning to ask him for ages how that nickname came about [for those without Swedish, this is slang Swedish for 'Never say no'])

squit, I suspect, is/was shared with other boarding schools? It's in the OED:
"Definition of squit in English:
noun
1 British informal: A small or insignificant person:
a little squit like Thorpe"

I think the use of the surname here confirms an independent-school provenance.

But what on earth is the etymology of kiff, skiffage, crug, etc?

(that's to say, ljgg, tljggbhf, dsvh

Thanks for the key, Keith.

Fjgrogan wrote:Thanks for the key, Keith.

Ditto Keith.

I've just worked it out !

I was somewhat surprised the boy scouts had a code for 'smutty-talk'.

Baden-Powell would NOT have been amused.

....... then again, any man that wears a funy hat, neckerchief, woggle, shorts, and spends his time with young boys......

J.R. wrote:

Fjgrogan wrote:Thanks for the key, Keith.

Ditto Keith.

I've just worked it out !

....... then again, any man that wears a funy hat, neckerchief, woggle, shorts, and spends his time with young boys......

Hey, I resemble that remark

Do kiff and spadge have some sort of vaguely German origin?

I was told that 'kiff' came from the Greek, meaning a drink of unknown origin, but I have found no evidence for this.

Not a lot of help, but the following is taken from a booklet entitled "Housey", compiled in 1944 by members of the Upper Forth Form A (43 - 44) including, amongst others, B. E. Magee, and published in 1946, in which it states

Slang

We found it well nigh impossible to collect the complete list of Housey slang. We have come to the conclusion that there is very little of it, the modern Blue being content with the latest inventions of the outside world. In the Preparatory School, however, bonfast, gag, spadge, kiff, skiffage, titch and fotch are still used.

I also have a booklet entitled

A Book of Housey Slang, compiled by Gerald Atkinsom (Pe B 17 - 24)

Flab n 1880
Kiff n 1890
Gag defined by C Lamb as the fat of fresh beef boiled


etc

Skiffage was the scrapings of plates onto a tray carried by the Skiffage Trade prior to the Plates Trades collecting the plates and Knives collecting the cutlery. The game was to skiff one's skiffage onto the Trade rather than into the tray, although he was protected by a filthy apron ehich I imagine got washed once a year.

Skiffage than gave its name to Skiffage Pie, a rather miscellaneous main course in which the subsoil was concealed by some sort of top which wasn't pastry.

Bonfast refers to a birthday but I forget what indignities were heaped on the lucky recipient.

postwarblue wrote:Bonfast refers to a birthday but I forget what indignities were heaped on the lucky recipient.

BONFAST n.1910
One of the species of poling; its use confined to the Prep. The boy whose house number corresponded with the number of days remaining in the term was liable to stand with his back to anyone who chose, who, having placed his hands on the unfortunate's shoulder, lifted each knee in turn sharply up till it came into contact with the most likely place to receive it, while the inflicter counted out the numbers aloud.

POLING n 1850

The ragging of an unpopular boy. The boy whose house number corresponded with the number of days remaining in the term could be set upon or maltreated in some set form. At one time it was to ruffle his hair: another to duck him under the pump, another was BONFAST.