XPost: alt.usage.english, sci.lang

On Thu, 3 Oct 2024 12:32:23 +0000, occam wrote:

On 03/10/2024 12:33, Ross Clark wrote:

...---...
At the First International Radiotelegraph Convention, in Berlin. The
Germans had already begun using this signal.

"neither so short as to be ambiguous nor so long as to be unwieldy"
(Crystal worded this with "too", which seems wrong.)

What was the Sentence containing "TOO" ?

It's technically a _prosign_ (procedural sign) -- a single unit, not a
letter sequence.

it's an _ambigram_ -- reads the same when flipped over (useful if you've
written it on the ground and people are searching for you from different
directions...)

That last point is interesting. Wonder why castaways in Hollywood films
still persist with 'HELP' on beaches.

i'd say HELP is better....

In movies they all say [May Day, May Day]


i was looking (for SOS) thru Another David-Crystal book and found:

____________________
sozzled 1886

The English Dialect Dictionary shows several regions using
soss, an onomatopoeic word reflecting the sound of water
being sloshed about.

If you were sossy, you liked a lot to drink; a soss-pot was a drunkard;
and an early spelling of sozzled was sosselled.

The word usually refers to a point well
up any scale of drunkenness, but not at the top: one is still
capable of carrying out some actions, albeit not perfectly,
as illustrated by such OED citations as ‘The voice gave a
sozzled chuckle’ (1951) and ‘With a sozzled smile he began
to sing’ (1972).



_________________________soss-pot reminded me of this song
but a Toss-pot is ........


Song: “When that I was and a little tiny boy (With hey, ho, the wind and
the rain)”

By William Shakespeare (from Twelfth Night)

When that I was and a little tiny boy,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
A foolish thing was but a toy,
For the rain it raineth every day.

But when I came to man’s estate,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
’Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gate,
For the rain it raineth every day.

But when I came, alas! to wive,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
By swaggering could I never thrive,
For the rain it raineth every day.

But when I came unto my beds,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
With toss-pots still had drunken heads, <-------------
For the rain it raineth every day.

A great while ago the world begun,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
But that’s all one, our play is done,
And we’ll strive to please you every day.



_________________but a Toss-pot is ........ a chamber-pot ???


>>> The term "toss-pots" refers to individuals who indulge
excessively in drinking, suggesting a humorous or critical view of their inebriated state


The phrase "when I came unto my beds, with toss-pots still had
drunken heads" reflects themes of inebriation and the inevitable passage
of time.

It signifies a moment of arrival or a state of being where people,
represented metaphorically by "toss-pots," are still affected by
drunkenness. The imagery encapsulates a sense of revelry and the
consequences of excessive indulgence.


--------- [passage of time] !!! ---- thank you, Kamala!!!

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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