Extinction millenium

[darmstadt]

Don't know how anyone can work in Lush, it stinks

[ladymuck]

Don't know how anyone can work in Lush, it stinks

It's like Subway, you smell it miles before you see it. I've only been in a store once because someone asked me to pick something up for them. Never again.

[OwlHoot]

not according to Mentalfloss who have some great other words - but WWWwords is probably more reputable

The Origins of 9 Great British Insults | Mental Floss.

Nincompoop

For such a colloquial word, nincompoop actually has a very learned past. Samuel Johnson, the compiler of England’s first proper dictionary, claims the word comes from the Latin phrase non compos mentis (“not of right mind”), and was originally a legal term.

World Wide Words: Nincompoop

Nah, for once the learned Dr Johnson was barking up the wrong tree!

It was originally Elizabethan (i.e. around the time of Drake and Raleigh) Naval slang and meant an ineffectual officer, whose foppish and/or otherwise incompetent ways meant he would never be promoted to captain, i.e. a short form of "ne(v)er come (to a) poop (deck)", the poop deck being the upper deck where the ship's captain would strut around giving orders to all and sundry.

[Lockhouse]

Some good ones here that I will endeavour to use in my client meeting this afternoon:

1920's Slang

[NotAllThere]

Nah, for once the learned Dr Johnson was barking up the wrong tree!

It was originally Elizabethan (i.e. around the time of Drake and Raleigh) Naval slang and meant an ineffectual officer, whose foppish and/or otherwise incompetent ways meant he would never be promoted to captain, i.e. a short form of "ne(v)er come (to a) poop (deck)", the poop deck being the upper deck where the ship's captain would strut around giving orders to all and sundry.

This is further supported by the fact the earliest occurrences were spelt "nicompoop".

[OwlHoot]

This is further supported by the fact the earliest occurrences were spelt "nicompoop".

Yup, and the word is a similar construction to "neer do well" which I think was Tudor slang from around the same time.

[Old Greg]

This is further supported by the fact the earliest occurrences were spelt "nicompoop".

There is a related term for an incoherent investment adviser: "nincompooperscot".

[northernladuk]

Nobody seems to 'snog' nowadays either.

[ladymuck]

Nobody seems to 'snog' nowadays either.

And do people still give each other 'hickies'?

Always thought such things were trashy so I'm glad of they have been consigned to history

[Scoobos]

There is no way that nearly 1 in 5 don't know the word Disco. I call BS. (silent disco is everywhere)