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Conference quark::mennotes-v1

Title:Topics Pertaining to Men
Notice:Archived V1 - Current file is QUARK::MENNOTES
Moderator:QUARK::LIONEL
Created:Fri Nov 07 1986
Last Modified:Tue Jan 26 1993
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:867
Total number of notes:32923

13.0. "Words for men" by RDGE00::KEW (Jerry built systems) Thu Nov 13 1986 13:26

Someone just asked me to explain the word "bloke"


Context is important re blokes

eg "He's an ok sort of bloke"
eg "This bloke, you see, was walking down the street"

you wouldn't actually call a person a bloke, eg "hello bloke"
you may say, "you seem like an ok bloke", 
but not for some reason, "hello bloke". 
It's quite a friendly, tending towards the neutral, way of referring to someone


Anybody care to explain "chaps" (no, not the things cowboys wear   :-)   )
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13.1Chaps teadance 4pm $1 coverEUCLID::LEVASSEURAyatollah of Rock n RollahFri Nov 14 1986 11:505
        Chaps! young men! according to the Amerikkan Heritage dictionary
    chaps....informal reference to a young man or boy....of course Chaps
    ia also the name of a gay bar in boston :-)
    
    Ray
13.2cowboysCACHE::MARSHALLhunting the snarkFri Nov 14 1986 20:298
    Chaps are also those leather things cowboys wear to protect their
    jeans while riding through brush.
                                                   
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13.3Chaps are.......ROYCE::RKEA little levity goes a long wayMon Nov 17 1986 15:1912
	Things that some people get on their.....lips...hands...and
sundry other parts of their exposed atomomy........especially in some Boston
bars ................


............and I should think the time of year is about right as well!

@ @
 ^ )
\_/

Richard.
13.4CSSE32::PHILPOTTCSSE/Lang. & Tools, ZK02-1/N71Wed Nov 19 1986 21:0712
    Chaps a cowboy wears: derived from "chaparral" the misused word that 
    describes the wild brush of the semi desert areas the  cowboys  work 
    in.

    Chap as a (young) person: it is common to refer to somebody young as 
    being wet behind the ears.  If you go out whilst wet behind the ears 
    you  will  become  chapped...    hence young people are chapped, and 
    collectively we have chaps.  (at least that was  the  explanation my 
    Commanding Officer once gave me, and I believed him implicitly :-)

    /. Ian .\
    
13.5chap = chap[man]CSSE32::PHILPOTTCSSE/Lang. & Tools, ZK02-1/N71Thu Nov 20 1986 12:469
re .4: I forgot the ':-)'

Actually 'chap' is derived from the middle english word 'chapman', which
is in turn derived from 'ceapman': 'ceap' meaning 'trade', the word refers
to an [itinerant or market] trader. Since such traders in the middle ages
were frequently young, and known for their cheeky banter, the word has come
to apply to a young, and frequently cheeky, man.

/. Ian .\
13.6chapparal a sticky buisnessRANCHO::RAHDid I studduh?Tue Dec 09 1986 17:295
    I can speak to the need for protection from chapparral,
    especially California manzanita. I one speared myself
    with a piece which had to be extracted surgically. Horses
    also get cut by it, which is why we keep to the trails.
    
13.7How 'bout fellows?TRCO01::GAYNECappucino anyone?Wed Nov 18 1987 17:323
    Interesting replies, old FELLOWs (FELLAs).
    
    /Les