by MargaritaMc » Wed Mar 06, 2013 9:29 am
stephen63 wrote:MargaritaMc wrote:
Thanks - I thought that I was being dim in not being able to work out where the comet was! I'm interested to see your use of "go south" - my Londoner Mum would say of something that has broken or worn out that it "had gone west". The UK's prevailing (wet) weather comes from the west. Does yours come from the south?
I
would have thought "going west" was a polite jab in reference to the ungrateful colonists who founded the U.S. 
Mmm. Possibly....
I googled the phrase and (after getting rid of Go West Young Man and music group called Go West) I found some information on
http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/gswithenbank/sayingsg.htm. The site doesn't permit select and copy (I'm on an Android with no separate keypad, so can't do the usual work-rounds) so I'll have to summarise.
1. The saying was made common during the First World War, when a British soldier 'going west' meant leaving the scene of fighting - often thru death or injury.
2. But the notion of West being the direction of death is an old one and is related to the setting sun
3. In LONDON, Tyburn, the place of public execution from the 12th century until 1783, is near Marble Arch, which was then far too the west of the rest of London. My Mum is from the area of the London Docklands, well to the east of the City of London.
Click to play embedded YouTube video.
Bye the way,"Going
Up west" in our family language means "getting all dolled-up and going out on the town"!
(To the West End, where all the theatres were/are).
Margarita
[quote="stephen63"][quote="MargaritaMc"]
Thanks - I thought that I was being dim in not being able to work out where the comet was! I'm interested to see your use of "go south" - my Londoner Mum would say of something that has broken or worn out that it "had gone west". The UK's prevailing (wet) weather comes from the west. Does yours come from the south?[/quote]
I [color=#8040FF]would have thought "going west" was a polite jab in reference to the ungrateful colonists who founded the U.S.[/color] :wink:[/quote]
Mmm. Possibly....
I googled the phrase and (after getting rid of Go West Young Man and music group called Go West) I found some information on http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/gswithenbank/sayingsg.htm. The site doesn't permit select and copy (I'm on an Android with no separate keypad, so can't do the usual work-rounds) so I'll have to summarise.
1. The saying was made common during the First World War, when a British soldier 'going west' meant leaving the scene of fighting - often thru death or injury.
2. But the notion of West being the direction of death is an old one and is related to the setting sun
3. In LONDON, Tyburn, the place of public execution from the 12th century until 1783, is near Marble Arch, which was then far too the west of the rest of London. My Mum is from the area of the London Docklands, well to the east of the City of London.
[youtube]http://youtube.com/#/watch?v=uZy7gK0hSss[/youtube]
Bye the way,"Going [b]Up [/b]west" in our family language means "getting all dolled-up and going out on the town"! :lol2: (To the West End, where all the theatres were/are).
Margarita