Heh heh, it doesn’t get cold in Suffolk, either…but we’re also capable of being behind the times. You probably never saw or heard of them because they’d fallen out of fashion (and actually, now I think about it, it was probably the winter of 1986/7, which was the last time we had a decent snowfall).
I just want to tell everyone that I have a genuine Inuit parka made by an old Inuk lady. It’s awesome. Everytime I wear it home I get very strange looks at the airports I stop at though.
Also, the “parka/parky” connection was the first thing I thought of when I saw this too.
Interesting, since every Inupiaq and Inuit-speaking native that I know says “parky”. Only gussucks (white people) say “parka”.
It’s not. It’s the other way 'round.
Hmmm… it may have been a peculiarity of just her. I’ve been looking up “parkas” and “anoraks”, and what we wore was much closer to an anorak (just a touch heavier, but not too much - many adolescent girls will freeze their little buns off first rather than wear a proper winter coat). However, also after looking up the difference, the times I’ve been asked to find someone’s parka have been times I retrieved a short but heavy coat with a fur-lined hood. I know little about jackets and styles, so I really didn’t think too hard on this in my earlier post (I usually knew what coat the person came in wearing, so it’s not as though I looked specifcally for something that looked like a “parka” or an “anorak” - I just grabbed the coat that belonged to the one who asked), until the pictures were presented to me just now, so I apologise if I muddied the debate unintentionally. I was ignorant of a few facts. Mea culpa.
Chefguy writes:
> It’s not. It’s the other way 'round.
No, the word “parka” meaning “fur-lined coat with a hood” came from the word “parka” or “parki” meaning the same thing in Inuit. The Inuit supposedly borrowed the word from the Russian word “parka” meaning “skin coat”. The northern English word “parky” meaning “chilly” did not come from the word “parka”. It’s first attested in 1895. Parkas were almost unknown among anyone except Inuit and Arctic explorers till the 1920’s. I don’t believe that ordinary clothes manufacturers made parkas until the 1950’s. The word “parky” meaning “chilly” probably came from the word “parky” meaning “open, spread-out (in reference to land)” which was first attested in 1831.
I, and just about every boy, had a parka in the mid 70s. Fashonwise they come and go, but they’ve been around for ages.
I don’t know where “perky” comes from, but it pre-dates, and has nothing to do with, parkas.
I’m from Yorkshire, but not elderly, and I’m quite familiar with the word and would occasionally use it myself (but not now I live in the US).
Thanks everyone, I now completely understand the word “parky” if not it’s etymology.
And I had no idea that “anorak” was an insult…is there any US equivalent? If I understand correctly no one with any aspirations to non-dorkiness would wear an anorak?
I guess ‘dork’ or ‘geek’ is the closest. It can also be subdivided into particular realms of geekdom, such as a 'Star Trek anorak, who would know the exact plot of every episode ever made.
‘Parky’ conjures images of cheap 80s raincoats.
The words “dork” or “geek” or “nerd” are all close to the meaning of “anorak.” I think though that “geek” and maybe “nerd” are capable of being used with a certain amount of defiant pride, though. Someone passionately interested in film could call himself a “film geek.” I don’t think that “anorak” can be used in this way, though.
It may interest you to know that we also use the expression “a bit parky” in the area where I live… and it’s not Yorkshire! I come from the ‘West Country’, south of Bristol.
… and while this zombie is still fresh I will add that my dictionary says it’s “perhaps from ‘perky’”. I suppose in the sense of fresh and brisk, or perhaps with reference to the effects of cold weather on the female human body?
The term ‘parky’ has been spread around and popularised a bit by things like Last of the Summer Wine and Wallace and Gromit - and maybe a few other TV/films set in the north.
It wouldn’t surprise me if the term spread from some very humble and untraceable origin - such as some local character somewhere named Parkin or Parkinson, who was always complaining that he was cold. (I’m not posing this even as serious speculation - it’s just that the origin might be absolutely untraceable, if it started from some local interpersonal banter)
Indeed. With the exciting zip pocket on the left arm and, erm, apparently a place to put pens.
Edit:
Shit, I just replied to a seven year old post.
This isn’t particularly connected to the North of England. I live on the South Coast and it’s been in regular use here for at least 50 years. From the evidence of the two earliest cites in the OED it could well have started in the sporting fraternity among the ‘swells’. (The * Pink 'un & Pelican* was another sporting newspaper.)
OED also suggests that it may have been an alteration of perky, which sounds reasonable to me.
Another vote for not just a North of England thing. I am from the south East and have often heard people use the phrase. I actually wondered if it might have a rhyming slang origin. Often with rhyming slang the full rhyme is dropped and only one word is used so it can be tricky to figure out the full slang if you are not familiar with it. For example people often say dog for phone when the full rhyme is dog and bone.
It could be parky is part of such a rhyme but we have lost whatever the second word is. That is a pure guess though. I am only really thinking along these lines because I do asscociate the term with cockney for some reason.
I know this is a zombie thread, but since it’s been revived, can somebody explain trainspotters to me? (Not the movie, but the actual people that Brits seem to be familiar with). Thanks.
My understanding is that trainspotters are like birders. A trainspotter carries a notebook wherein he notes the details of every encounter he has with a locomotive engine.
I once attended a model railroad convention and among the wares on display were video recordings of trains going by over and over again, and also audio recordings of the same.
Extreme nerds, basically.