Discussion Forum (Archived)
Guest
Nack in the 1960s, Frostie was a popular brand of root beer. Guess the Ozzies never tried it.
Apparently it's still sold on Amazon and Walmart sites
And I was surprised to see the Oxford use the word shit so freely, although I'm not sure why that word is impolite here. It doesn't insult anyone, nor does it refer to an act the polite members of society refrain from.
"Frosted off". according to pre-D-Day literature I've encountered, was Brit clang meaning angered at lack of respect shown to one. And there's no such thing as whore frost, although the male meterologists at NOAA refer to hoarfrost.
Simon Nize said
I believe it is hoarfrost.
Welcome to the forum, Siimon. There are a bunch of wise and well-informed people here; few stop in that don't fit that description, so I imagine you'll fit right in. Of course, I am here as well, so there are no guarantee.
I suspect you're right about hoarfrost; the frostly look I would get from my wife when I flirted with an a lady down at the taproom ought to have a name, though.
Frostie root beer is apparently now available year-round. Not so three or four years ago when you could only get it for a short time in the summer and another short time around Christmas. I vividly remember getting pulled over by the cops late one New Year's Day when they saw me tip up a brown bottle to check the level at a stoplight (I wanted to know how close I was to needing to grab another beverage out of the cooler). They asked what I was drinking and I showed them, then turned the encounter into a commercial for the stuff, telling them they *might* still be able to find it at Cost Plus if they were lucky.
...
Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,
Pale in her anger, washes all the air,
That rheumatic diseases do abound:
And thorough this distemperature we see
The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,
And on old Hiems’ thin and icy crown
An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds
Is, as in mockery, set.
...
A Midsummer-Night’s Dream, Act II. Scene I.
The words hoar and hoary relate at base to color, specifically the colors white and light gray. By presumed association with the hair color of the aged, hoary has come to mean ancient or esteemed due to age. In the passage above, Shakespeare shows brilliance (I know, I'm the first to remark that.) by not only using hoary to refer to the color of frost, and contrasting hoary with crimson, but also, by pairing it with headed, contrasting the suggestion of old age with the youth suggested by the fresh lap, ultimately suggesting an unnaturalness that is repulsive.
RobertB said
Tip up to check!!! Now that's creative. If it's other kinds of beverages, officer might laugh so hard he forgets everything.
Not sure why that'd be funny. Unlike the clear bottles pictured in the OP, mine was brown glass with a label that went all the way around. Holding the bottle level I could see it was down to below the top of the label, but not as low as the bottom of the label. Tilt the bottle at an angle to get a better idea of just how much root beer was actually left. (And do this, of course, fully aware that I can see a marked police car right behind me at the stoplight, and that I'm sober enough to realize that he can see me too.)
Glenn said
The words hoar and hoary relate at base to color, specifically the colors white and light gray. By presumed association with the hair color of the aged, hoary has come to mean ancient or esteemed due to age. In the passage above, Shakespeare shows brilliance (I know, I'm the first to remark that.) by not only using hoary to refer to the color of frost, and contrasting hoary with crimson, but also, by pairing it with headed, contrasting the suggestion of old age with the youth suggested by the fresh lap, ultimately suggesting an unnaturalness that is repulsive.
It appears that the hore of horehound also derives from that same old word meaning gray.
I am unfamiliar with the horehound plant. an Old World plant, Marrubium vulgare, of the mint family, having downy leaves and small, whitish flowers, and containing a bitter, medicinal juice that is used as an expectorant, vermifuge, and laxative. I thought horehound drops were only cough suppressants. I'll have to remember that the next time I need to fuge my vermi. I'm used to taking Miralax when I want to physic myself.
I imagine the plant looks beautiful when covered with rime. Wild carrot (aka "Queen Anne's Lace") sure does.
The problem with this site is that every question answered brings up three more questions, and that's from the straightforward answers. When Glenn comes up with a strange and wonderful piece like Shakespeare's use of Hoary-Headed, it really sets me on my heels.
More than three questions now. What did the lace end up looking llike for Queen Anne's dress, who won the contest, and what did they win? Find a picture of hoary horehound. Investigate use of physic to mean laxative. Investigate vermifuge. Check ngrams for hoary-headed. Find out if anyone's ever been murdered for referring to a woman as hoary-headed.
Every so often I hear a bizarre pronunciation that makes me wonder if maybe it's my own that's wrong. Chris Kimball mentioned magnesium citrate on America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Country, calling it "sigh trait". It made me wonder if he referred to lemons, limes, oranges and grapefruit as sign-trick fruit. Pretty sure of myself on that one, from warning a minor in chemistry, but for other words, I'm less sure. (Kimball, I've long thought, is a fool. They rated a $13 set of measuring spoons tops, so I got them, but I prefer to use the $1.13 set I bought from WEBstaurant Store, a restaurant supply house. They rated pizza cutters, but didn't try anything much less than $10; the most popular cutter of pizza shops runs $2.74, and the premium cutter from American Mtalcraft is $5.79. Kimball seems to personify what Spiro Agnew (but not lexicograpgers) called an "effete snob".
But I best get to work. The way questions are piling up - for instance, effete - I should be done approximately 2353.
What's the difference. anyway, between "better get to work" and "best get to work"? Is it just comparative versus superlative, or is there something "hidden"? And is there any real difference between "anyhow" and "anyway"? Maybe I can try for 2411.
My understanding is that hoarfrost forms when the temperature drops below freezing after the dew has settled. It's usually a dawn phenomenon, therefore, and vanishes with the warmth of the sun. I've seen it, rarely, here in Ohio, and it creates an exquisite effect covering every separate leaf and twig with white. Makes an early drive to work magical in Spring or Autumn.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
1 Guest(s)