On Sat, 20 Jul 2013 10:45:38 +0100, Stephen wrote:

> On 20/07/2013 3:29 AM, Jim Henderson wrote:
>> Well, I'll cop to my source being John Lloyd for that, and it wouldn't
>> be the first time that I'd seen/heard something in one of his books
>> that I knew wasn't quite correct.
>>
>>
> True. I would think that there is a team of researchers being used for
> QI.

There is - they talk about it on the official site (and in the books). :)

>> OED cites an example from 1888 as its earliest citation, but OED
>> doesn't always have the earliest, since the quotations are just
>> examples. But it does confirm something I thought was the case, which
>> is that it wasn't common to the US, but more common to other colonies,
>> notably Australia, New Zeland, and South Africa. At least as an
>> "English Immigrant".
>>
>>
> Our "received wisdom" is that it was Poms for Brits in the antipodes.
> But you never can tell.

That's one of the goals QI has, though - to challenge the received 
wisdom. ;)

But clearly they don't always get it right. :)

>> In the US, the term comes along later (or at least the earliest quote
>> citing it is later, 1918), referring to an English or British sailor.
>> That actually does match up with the information in the Second Book of
>> General Ignorance (the quotation uses "lime-juicer" to refer to the
>> ship,
>> and "limeys" to refer to the sailors).
>>
>>
> Jack Tars, this side of the pond. Me lad!
> Oo Arr!
> 
> BTW Did you know that Avast! Me hearties. Actually means "Stop what
> you're doing"?

I didn't - well, I knew "Avast" was a way of saying "stop", but beyond 
that I didn't. :)

>> But Mr. Fry doesn't do the research, generally, for QI.  I don't know
>> that Lloyd does that much of it any more, either.;)
> 
> Mr. Fry says more than his prayers, when he wants to impress. IMO.

Given his lack of religious convictions, that's pretty easy to achieve, 
don't you think? ;)

Jim

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