(Extreme… Language)
I’m sure it comes to everyone sometimes. In a late night conversation over a couple of glasses (bottles?) of sherry, you stumble into the edge of the English language.
Now it’s a very broad field, with it’s Latin, Germanic, and Norman roots and an Empires worth of borrow words, but still, there are edges, and odd corners where “just the right word” seems elusive.
Generally what we do then, is borrow from French (entrepreneur -anyone ) or sometimes German (schadenfreude! ).
But sometimes, perhaps in a moment of inspiration, perhaps because we lack the linguistic background to reach over and steal what we need, or maybe because our mouth is moving faster than our brain… we coin a new phrase or word (usually some kind of portmanteau affair as we try to express two things at once) – hangry, bromance, affluenza…
Of course it can also be a new application of an existing term.
I am aware of (although not a participant in) extreme sports (pick your death defying activity and do it somewhere more dangerous – probably without a net). I’ve heard of extreme planking , even of extreme ironing (it’s a thing – go look it up), but I’m happy to bring you ;
Extreme Socialising!
No early to bed with a mug of Horlicks for these 60 year olds! No sir! It’s sit up past one with a bottle of port/brandy/whisky like we were young people, and talk about things we did forty years ago.
I’d like to make it clear to younger viewers that:
A/ Horlicks is neither psychotropic, nor a euphemism for anything.
B/ This kind of extreme socialising should not be attempted without decades of practise and training. Trying to reminisce about last week, or even last year, I’m sorry but that’s just memory.
Properly done it’s quite safe, because, after years of refined technique, all concerned know how the story ends, where to laugh, when to chip in, and groan in mock horror. Old barbs are thrown again, but the edges are blunted by long use and no-one can actually get hurt.
I’d like to take the credit , but it was brother Tam (back again from the wilds of Canada) who turned the phrase, as his arrival occasioned (as it ever does), much re-telling of old tales, and drinking of toasts.
That reminds of that time in 1985?……
Next week on IaDL: Didn’t I used to play guitar or something?
Dalmallyfest the Asylum 