On Feb. 22 at 10:06 am, user 007 posted a bounty question to the Stack Exchange network Q&A website "English Language & Usage" asking fellow users to form a question that would have what specific blockquoted answer?
Without the question mark, I swear that reads like a Jeopardy clue.
Ok, anyone who's read Joel Spolsky's question asking about the use of "cheers" in Britain, what does "maintain[ing] the dip" mean in the highest-voted accepted answer?
I laughed alot when I first read that, because I interpreted is a physical thing the upper class did...like "pinkies up when drinking tea", or a literal "stiff upper lip"
*it
Then I realized he might have been referring to the graph somehow, but it doesn't really make much syntatic sense...they wouldn't have any knowledge about what the graph looks like, right?
The graph for toasting has a dip in it, which Iain attributes to the fact that when you get to a certain level in the social strata, people become more apt to use foreign translations of "cheers". But the graph does not go back up when you get to the upper classes, even though said upper classes wouldn't dream of using a foreign version of "cheers".
That answer is actually one of my favorite answers on English L&U...so much to ask from it, and they have have nothing to do with question originally asked, the answerer is just so authentically British...
Yes, that's certainly a valid interpretation...but I thought maybe also there was an idiomatic phrase in the UK...I know that dip was an upperclass term for snuff box, maybe he was referring to a specific manner of looking like a gentlemen, say, when smoking...
On Feb. 22 at 10:06 am, user 007 posted a bounty question to the Stack Exchange network Q&A website "English Language & Usage" asking fellow users to form a question that would have what specific blockquoted answer?
English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…
English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…