Word Wobble

For the past few months, I've been watching a few British based shows on Netflix. First, I watched a series on people looking for for homes in the country, then I followed that up with some British baking competitions. Listening to the accents of everyone is interesting, but word usage can be rather odd at times.

When searching for a new home, families often wanted to have space for a "holiday let" and start a business. As near as I can tell, this is basically a bed and breakfast type of situation, but without the breakfast. Their version of country also doesn't coincide with what I would expect. Some homes were in the middle of open country as I would think, but they could also be in the center of a small town, or village as they say. This could easily just be different understandings, but some get even more strange.

I'm very familiar with charged and dead batteries as the difference can mean a day out and about in my chair or stuck in bed while it charges. In the U.K. and other European countries, a battery without charge is flat. I guess that means one with a full charge is bumpy, but I can only guess. In Australia, if you're nursing a baby, it simply means someone is taking care of a baby and is something that men can do. In America nursing a baby means, something entirely different.

Not only do words have different meaning depending on what country you're, they can also change over time. One example is the word unicorn. Today, this word brings up images of a horse with a horn coming out of its head that is used in different fairy-tales. However, an 1811 dictionary has unicorn described as: "An animal with one horn; the monoceros. This name is often applied to the rhinoceros." If you look at the scientific name for a single horn rhinoceros, it is "rhinoceros unicornis." Therefore, if you read a King James Version of the Bible, from 1611, and read unicorn in passages such as Job 39:9-10 and other places, you must consider its meaning at the time it was written.

Modern vocabulary can be very interesting when you get away from your familiar roots. Be careful you don't go flat out like a lizard drinking (Australia) and be too quick to assume a meaning. It could make for confusing encounters at best, and major embarrassment at worst.