i thought this was a bulb soceity - and you brought up what it means - a bugger is a sodomite try more avoidence. ----- Original Message ----- From: "steven hart" <hartsentwine.australia@gmail.com> To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2012 9:02 PM Subject: Re: [pbs] Including the previous message/Digest choices > While i wait for my nut labels to print for work, thought i would quickly > see what is happening here :) > Your very right Peter..... > > Oops, Bugger that was me...... Oops is another one & means i made a little > mistake...... > To any of you left wondering.... > Bugger is regularly used in conversation in Australia, but certainly > depends on the sentence as to what it means..... The old oxford > dictionary gives it a terrible meaning, which no body has used for > hundreds > of years so it should be removed, & not to be mentioned here by any means > please.... > > Bugger is recognised in many Australian dictionaries or slang > dictionaries, > we don't normally use abbreviations like "Afaik " in Australia but our > whole language base seems to include a lot of slang words in conversation, > so many in fact that most people would no longer know which ones are slang > & which ones are true dictionary meanings, many are being added to > dictionaries, it makes it confusing for outsiders for sure ! > In normal conversations in Australia bugger is used all the time & i > wonder > when the meaning changed, & why ? It is usually used with the > terminology, > ( O my goodness i buggered that up ! ) "The understood meaning for all > Australians is - " I made a silly mistake " > (What a bugger) can be used like "i wish that had not happened" (Don't > bugger it up ) "don't break that thing" (You bugger) i'm not sure i can > get > this one but its used a lot & finally (Bugger off) "Go away" > > Quite funny really no wonder people are confused by us Australians.... I > sometimes wonder if our convict roots played a roll in language changes as > the English deported large numbers of uneducated men & women, most only > guilty of steeling a loaf of bread through forced starvation, or similar > minor offences......Many of them couldn't even spell their names & that is > why so many names changed here on arrival to the convict colonies..... > Steven > Esk Queensland Australia > > On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 3:36 AM, Peter Taggart > <petersirises@gmail.com>wrote: > >> I try to avoid abbreviations, swearing, compressions and figures of >> speech. > > > >> While perfectly understandable to me, I hate to think what a translation >> into Hungarian or Polish of the words "bugger" or "doofuses" might be. > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ >