“Barney” as a description of a minor, possibly physical, dispute predates The Flintstones by a century or so. I can’t find the actual etymology.
John S Farmer, compiler lists “barney”, in his compilation of Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present (1890)
It would have sounded more like “aw-roight?”
This is the equivalent of the French “Ça va!” and can be used as a whole conversation:
Quite an effort to find a rhyme for bahookie
So-called “Cockney rhyming slang” has lost any connection with East London and has been taken over by comedians.
It was once a form of jargon, used to exclude anyone not from their peer group. “Polari” was similar as was “backslang” (used in an attempt to confuse law enforcement).
I’ve noticed that ‘several’ seems to sometimes confuse some Americans, who appear to think it’s just another word for seven.
It has certainly had the piss taken out of it for decades :-
Where does “brook” fit in?
I didn’t even know of the USGS definition (even though I had also internalized it as “river > stream > creek”.) But to me, “brook” is a definitely-small creek. As others have said, the something called a “creek” can overlap in size with a “river”, and few moving bodies of water are actually named a “Stream”. But something called a “brook” is never large.
“Brook,” “river,” “stream,” and “creek” all refer to flowing bodies of water, but they vary mostly in size and flow. Here’s a quick overview:
And while we’re on the topic of water, in New Jersey, saying you’re “going down the shore” means you’re heading to the beach—regardless of which direction you’re coming from!
?
Who are these people that you’re associating with? I’ve never encountered confusion about “several” in America.
Indeed, I associate “several” with more than 2, but less than 7.
I got in trouble at work once for saying “the odd assignment” to a student (in! university!) because they didn’t realize it meant “the occasional assignment” and thought I was insulting them. I can’t remember the full sentence, but it should have been clear from context. Anyway, they complained and I was told not to use the word.
See also:
The one that got me as a US English speaker the first time I heard a friend from the UK use it is “I could murder a fag” which in the US would translate as something like “I could kill for a cigarette” (at least that’s what I’m guessing its derivation is) or maybe to use an idiom (is this a US idiom?) “I’m jonesing for a cigarette.”
Where have you heard this? The only time I have ever seen something think “several” means “seven” was the idiot on last season’s Survivor, and every other (American) contestant made fun of him for it.
That is not a thing.
I’ve never actually heard someone use the British phrase, and if I had to do a very rough translation I’d indeed translate it as “I could kill for a cigarette”. But to me, it seems more like they are directly murdering the cigarette, i.e. consuming it with voracious gusto like it has no chance to escape.
(Amusingly, during the movie Yesterday, a British person says “I could murder a cigarette”, which is sort of a no-win situation since it would seem weird to me both if they said “fag”, but also “cigarette”, because the original feels like it’s a stock phrase that people would always say using “fag”, even if it turns out that “I could murder a cigarette” is a completely valid alternative.)
That’s odd.
Appropriately, another British phrasing would be “gasping for a fag” (or a smoke or whatever).
But it could also be used in the “gasping for a cuppa” context.
I’ve lost count of the number of times I have mentioned, in one of my videos, that something happened to me, or I have had something, for several decades, only to find a load of people either asking me “OMG, so you’re like, 70?”, and in some cases, arguing with me that actually, several does mean seven where they live, which turns out to be somewhere in America. They’re just wrong of course - I don’t believe several means seven anywhere.
So, it absolutely is a thing.
Also: Petition · Several Means 7 - United States · Change.org
Ah! I like that possible etymology even better.