Yul Brynner

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Drago

Drago

Legendary Member
Location
Suburban Poshshire
FishFright said:
I used to cave with a guy who lived in a railway carriage , the rumour mill said he was on the run from the Legion . Oh how laughed until they turned up to collect him, luckily for him he was underground at the time and the locals who knew him said he'd left months ago .
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The Legion tend not to snatch deserters at large in the UK. Too tricky to get them out, too much chance of arrest.

What they will periodically do if they find you is turn up and give you a good kicking.
 
N

numbnuts

Legendary Member
Location
Gone over the hill and far away
Cycleops said:
Anyone claim they can speak Latin?
Dreadful language, hated it at school. Conjugating objects, ridiculous.
Back then it was part of a classical education.
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At the age of 7 I could resite the Catholic Mass in Latin......I had no idea what it was I was saying as I learnt it parrot fashion.............and still don't today :laugh:
 
swee'pea99

swee'pea99

Legendary Member
Blue Hills said:
lots of tales of derry doing
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You remind me of using that expression over the dinner table only to be met by totally blank expressions from the munchkins, neither of whom were familiar with the expression, or, both claimed, had even heard it. :ohmy:. This happens a lot. "Ripping yarns" got a similar reception recently.

Musing over whether there's any kind of derring other than do I found my way to:

What's the origin of the phrase 'Derring-do'?

We now use 'derring-do' as a rather curious and archaic sounding two-part noun to describe 'ye olde' swordplay and the like. Use of the phrase was almost obligatory in any review of films starring the late Errol Flynn, who was surely the most audacious actor ever to swash a buckle. The fact that we come to have the word at all is actually due to a series of mistakes by a group of very eminent writers.

The earliest form of 'derring-do' in print is found in Geoffrey Chaucer's Troylus And Criseyde, circa 1374:

"In durring don that longeth to a knight."

Chaucer was using the two words 'durring' and 'don' with their usual 14th century meanings of 'daring' and 'do'. This line in his work translates into 20th century language as 'in daring to do what is proper for a knight'. The poet John Lydgate, paraphrased Chaucer in The Chronicle of Troy, 1430, and his 'dorryng do' was misprinted in later versions of the work as 'derrynge do'.

In reading the above, the celebrated Tudor poet Edmund Spenser appears not to have realised that derrynge was a misprint of durring, the meaning of which he would have been familiar with, and interpreted 'derrynge do' as meaning 'brave actions'. That was the way he used it in several of his late 16th poems, including his best-known work, The Faerie Queene, 1596:

"A man of mickle name, Renowned much in armes and derring doe."

Last, but not least, make way for that inveterate plunderer of historic language, Sir Walter Scott. His use of 'derring-do' as a single word in the hugely popular novel Ivanhoe, 1820, cemented it into the language:

"Singular," he again muttered to himself, "if there be two who can do a deed of such derring-do!"

Incidentally, Flynn and his flamboyant colleagues weren't described as swashbuckling for no reason. 'Swash' was a 16th century term that referred to the noise braggarts made to simulate the sound of swishing weapons when pretending to sword-fight. A buckler was a small round shield, usually fixed to the forearm. So, a 'swashbuckler' was a swaggering ruffian; someone very likely to swash his buckle.

Just in case anyone's interested. ^_^
 
Dayvo

Dayvo

just passin' through
Location
59° 50′ 5.55″ N, 10° 47′ 41.89″ E
When the Womans moved fwom Camulodunum to Londinium, the centuwions were unsure which of the two teams in the north and west of the city to support, so they hedged their bets.
Not being to speak English and/or having dyslexia didn’t help either.

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ColinJ

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
Location
Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
I only studied Latin for one year before switching to German.

I have just had a flashback to one of my school speech days, over 50 years ago. There was a bigwig guest speaker who had obviously had a classical education. He droned on and on while hundreds of teenage boys wriggled about in captive boredom.

"Well boys, I hope that I have inspired you to make the most of the wonderful educational opportunities afforded to you. A good education is the most important basis for a successful life. Never forget though, the expression 'Mens sana in corpore sano'!"

The pupils scanned one another's faces for some sign of understanding...

The speaker was on a roll and decided to wrap up his speech with a joke. He chuckled gently to himself in anticipation of the mirth to follow, then continued...

"There was a city not far from here in which were 2 high street shops selling sportswear. One on one side of the street, the other directly facing it. There was fierce competition between the two shopkeepers. If one lowered prices in a sale by 5%, the other would lower his by 6%, and so on. One day a big sign appeared in the window of the first shop... 'Mens sana in corpore sano'. The very next day a sign appeared in the window of the rival shop. It had printed on it... "

The speaker was already laughing at his own joke. There was a short pause while he composed himself...

"I'm sorry; I will continue... One day a big sign appeared in the window of the first shop... 'Mens sana in corpore sano'. The very next day a sign appeared in the window of the rival shop. It had printed on it 'Mens AND WOMENS sana in corpore sano'!"

He howled with laughter and clutched the side of the lectern to steady himself. The assembled teachers nodded knowingly and chuckled. The parents in the audience smiled nervously, and applauded politely. Seven hundred teenage boys sat in stunned silence...




Oh, I'm sorry - this thread is about Yul Brynner, isn't it? :blush:

 
Cycleops

Cycleops

Legendary Member
Location
Accra, Ghana
Does anyone else remember shouting 'cavey' at school when a teacher was approaching?
 
Blue Hills

Blue Hills

^
Location
London
ColinJ said:
I only studied Latin for one year before switching to German.

I have just had a flashback to one of my school speech days, over 50 years ago. There was a bigwig guest speaker who had obviously had a classical education. He droned on and on while hundreds of teenage boys wriggled about in captive boredom.

"Well boys, I hope that I have inspired you to make the most of the wonderful educational opportunities afforded to you. A good education is the most important basis for a successful life. Never forget though, the expression 'Mens sana in corpore sano'!"

The pupils scanned one another's faces for some sign of understanding...

The speaker was on a roll and decided to wrap up his speech with a joke. He chuckled gently to himself in anticipation of the mirth to follow, then continued...

"There was a city not far from here in which were 2 high street shops selling sportswear. One on one side of the street, the other directly facing it. There was fierce competition between the two shopkeepers. If one lowered prices in a sale by 5%, the other would lower his by 6%, and so on. One day a big sign appeared in the window of the first shop... 'Mens sana in corpore sano'. The very next day a sign appeared in the window of the rival shop. It had printed on it... "

The speaker was already laughing at his own joke. There was a short pause while he composed himself...

"I'm sorry; I will continue... One day a big sign appeared in the window of the first shop... 'Mens sana in corpore sano'. The very next day a sign appeared in the window of the rival shop. It had printed on it 'Mens AND WOMENS sana in corpore sano'!"

He howled with laughter and clutched the side of the lectern to steady himself. The assembled teachers nodded knowingly and chuckled. The parents in the audience smiled nervously, and applauded politely. Seven hundred teenage boys sat in stunned silence...




Oh, I'm sorry - this thread is about Yul Brynner, isn't it? :blush:

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a relative perhaps of the i am pretty sure privately educated bike shop owner who responded to my demand for a partial refund on the basis that he had lied to me/cheated me with "caveat emptor" and then, I know not why, maybe my northern accent, started laughing manically and said "I bet you don't know what that means do you?".
Twat - I had given them lots of business, but never went back.

edit - if anyone can capture the wonder of the expressive anglo-saxon "twat" (tho it's origin is I know not what) in latin, please educate me.
 
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