Quote:
In the High and Far-Off Times the Elephant, O Best Beloved, had no trunk.
...and he said through his nose, which was now nearly five feet long, 'This is too butch for be!'
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That is from Kipling's
Just-So Stories, and it tells how the Elephant's Child got his trunk to be so long because a Crocodile bit on it and refused to let go. The EC tries to talk through his pinched nose and say something that I wouldn't & didn't hesitate to read to my young children, but which would cause titters from some adults because of the current use of "butch", and it illustrates how meanings (or mishearings) change through time and place.
http://www.boop.org/jan/justso/elephant.htm
All this was brought on by an email I just received from a lady (here nameless) who wrote (I cannot imagine why): 'Allen, you're a brick.'
I think I got the drift, but being a real brick, I decided to check out this wizard flapper's groove-like palaver. I went to
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=brick.
Here's the brick's plunge in descending order: 1) a kilo of illegal drugs, 2) some cocaine, 3) a poor basketball shot, 4) verb: to ruin a piece of electronic equipment, 5) heroin, 6) marihuana, 7) a building block OR to defecate during intercourse, 8) very cold, 9) a giant piece of human excrement, 10) a massive cell phone, 11) a drug kilo again, 12) very cold again, 13) a bad water polo shot, 14) very cold again, 15) a dependable person, 16) a woman flat on all sides and a sexual partner for a national group, 17) a pound of drugs.
I can exclude item 16, because the broad knows I do groom, but as to the rest, poetic license could possibly allow some unless I make certain charitable assumptions. (I do choose to make them, and opt for item 15. She needn't worry.) However, I was struck by how odd it would seem if I replied to her in a rhyming slang, for example, for which she could find no leprecaun.
Moving on: Words and phrases that mean X in area (or time) A but Z in area (or time) B? I don't expect lot of replies: birds and stud muffins are mad shy, but let's hear a few (some) of 'em!
Allen