(urth) Auk's dimber tip to all flash coves

[Jenny Blackford]

A note from an Australian lurker (and Wolfe reviewer now and then):

The word "mews" isn't obscure in British English, though it's not
often used in Australia. It's used quite commonly as an architectural
description in British novels even now, and presumably also in speech. I 
remember not knowing exactly it meant, as a kid reading Agatha Christie, but 
assuming it was a form of housing and not bothering to check the
dictionary.

The word "cove" is now pretty much obsolete in Australian English, but still
used by old people. My father will still refer to men as "coves", as in
"some silly old cove down at the golf club". The word "flash" was in common 
use
when I was at school as an alternative to "flashy", as in "that's a flash
car", and is still understood. I don't know whether kids use it.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gwern Branwen" <gwern0 at gmail.com>
To: "The Urth Mailing List" <urth at lists.urth.net>
Sent: Sunday, July 26, 2009 5:07 AM
Subject: Re: (urth) Auk's dimber tip to all flash coves


> On Sun, Jul 19, 2009 at 4:01 PM, Roy C. Lackey<rclackey at stic.net> wrote:
>> As Dave said, "mews" and "limer" are just obscure words.