# Getting the knack of noshing **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 15, 2007, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395 "2007-02-15T20:06:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395/21 "2007-02-16T16:45:59Z")
[QUOTE=tdn] As a friend of mine would say, those aren’t words, they are sway-doh words. Dude, it ain’t pronounced sway-doh. And drownd is not a word either. [/QUOTE] No. It’s drownt. Like kilt or fount or learnt. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395/22 "2007-02-16T17:26:44Z")
[QUOTE=chowder] Which part of England? Nosh is to eat…oh right, sorry 😃😉 [/QUOTE] London way, hence the phrase, if getting some action from an attractive Sloane: “posh nosh off top toff tot”. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395/23 "2007-02-16T17:29:24Z")
[QUOTE=Zeldar] No. It’s drownt. Like kilt or fount or learnt. [/QUOTE] Ah. Even in present tense? ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395/24 "2007-02-16T17:33:19Z")
[QUOTE=Zeldar] No. It’s drownt. Like kilt or fount or learnt. [/QUOTE] Kilt= Scottish :erm: skirt Fount= as in fount of knowledge Learnt…you mean learnded 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395/25 "2007-02-16T18:01:34Z")
[QUOTE=chowder] Kilt= Scottish :erm: skirt Fount= as in fount of knowledge Learnt…you mean learnded 😉 [/QUOTE] Maybe in your circle of parlance, but the real usage is as in: Johnny done kilt that rat what was eating them vittles. Willie done fount a big old dollar on the front porch next to the glider. Ain’t you learnt nothing, boy? Them’s baby possums, not chickens. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395/26 "2007-02-16T18:02:57Z")
[QUOTE=tdn] Ah. Even in present tense? [/QUOTE] I guess I never heard them in present tense. Got any good examples so I can say I learnt something today? ---
**Author:** ![Lisa\_Ann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bc79bd/32.png) [@Lisa\_Ann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lisa_Ann)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395/27 "2007-02-16T20:46:22Z")
Twickster, I try not to think too hard, ever. 😉 Idiom(s): give up the ghost To cease living or functioning; die. from [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/en%3Agive%20up%20the%20ghost](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/en%3Agive%20up%20the%20ghost) ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395/28 "2007-02-16T20:50:37Z")
[QUOTE=Lisa Ann] Twickster, I try not to think too hard, ever. 😉 Idiom(s): give up the ghost To cease living or functioning; die. from [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/en%3Agive%20up%20the%20ghost](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/en%3Agive%20up%20the%20ghost) [/QUOTE] I’m familiar with the phrase – I’m just saying, why would it be a “ghost” that you “give up”? ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395/29 "2007-02-16T20:56:03Z")
[QUOTE=tdn] As a friend of mine would say, those aren’t words, they are sway-doh words. Dude, it ain’t pronounced sway-doh. And drownd is not a word either. [/QUOTE] :smack: I finally figured out that “drownd” in the present tense is just the adding of the “d” sound to the pronunciation. And yes, that’s not all that uncommon around here, either. To make it past tense, you have to go with “drownded.” ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395/30 "2007-02-16T20:57:04Z")
[QUOTE=twickster] I’m familiar with the phrase – I’m just saying, why would it be a “ghost” that you “give up”? [/QUOTE] Haven’t you ever seen those cartoons where somebody dies, and a ghostly transparent version of them goes floating upward out of their body? ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395/31 "2007-02-16T21:03:23Z")
[QUOTE=twickster] I’m familiar with the phrase – I’m just saying, why would it be a “ghost” that you “give up”? [/QUOTE] For those who endorse the notion of soul and spirit and other ways of making the life force into something physical or metaphysical, the notion of ghost as a synonym goes way back. Releasing of the spirit, as if it were something the body does in the process of dying, has several figures of speech associated with it. I have always thought that the notion came from watching smoke rise from a fire and how the uninformed might liken the process of death with giving off a similar emanation. It’s also why the notion of Heaven being up came to be, and why one rises into Heaven. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395/32 "2007-02-16T22:04:08Z")
[QUOTE=Zeldar] :smack: I finally figured out that “drownd” in the present tense is just the adding of the “d” sound to the pronunciation. [/QUOTE] Yep, that’s what I meanded. ---
**Author:** ![Monstera\_deliciosa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monstera_deliciosa/32/109_2.png) [@Monstera\_deliciosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstera_deliciosa)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395/33 "2007-02-16T22:07:39Z")
I remembered that the phrase “gave up the ghost” was in one of the crucifixion accounts in the King James version of the Bible. Upon research, I found out it was Mark 15:37. Apparently it also appears elsewhere in the KJV, both in the old and new testaments. One religious site which turned up on Google, which I’m not going to link here, suggested that it basically just means heaving a last dying breath. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2007, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395/34 "2007-02-17T07:48:02Z")
[QUOTE=Thudlow Boink] Haven’t you ever seen those cartoons where somebody dies, and a ghostly transparent version of them goes floating upward out of their body? [/QUOTE] Ah yes," popping their clogs" as we say in Britland ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2007, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395/35 "2007-02-17T13:23:11Z")
I once had a client tell me a story in which she threatened to ‘murderlize’ someone. You know, like they would be kilt when she was done with them. ---
**Author:** ![Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/df705f/32.png) [@Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Full_Metal_Lotus)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395/36 "2007-02-18T02:12:57Z")
I worked at Home Depot for yrs, and would often run the Plane saw (for cutting large pieces of flat goods (plywood, etc) At least once a week some one would give me measurements in “width, depth and higth” regards FML ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395/37 "2007-02-18T02:20:07Z")
[QUOTE=Full Metal Lotus] At least once a week some one would give me measurements in “width, depth and higth” [/QUOTE] I love it when somebody goes to great lenths and has the strenth to utilize a plane saw to accomplish some nice cuts on some stobs. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395.md?page=1)