What do we call a person in a war who holds the army's flag?
网页2017年5月3日 · It is now more widely used as an idiom for someone who represents a cause of any sort, but the original meaning was the person who carried an army's standard or flag. From Oxford Dictionaries: A soldier who is responsible for carrying the distinctive flag of a unit, regiment, or army. 1.1 A leading figure in a cause or movement.
Origin of fag (meaning a cigarette in British English)
网页2015年12月1日 · According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, it comes from "fag", meaning a loose piece of cloth:. fag (n.1) Look up fag at Dictionary.com British slang for "cigarette" (originally, especially, the butt of a smoked cigarette), 1888, probably from fag "loose piece, last remnant of cloth" (late 14c., as in fag-end "extreme end, loose piece," …
What is the difference between "English" and "British"?
网页2011年12月17日 · Britain (and thus the adjective British) refers geographically to the whole of the island on which England, Wales, and Scotland lie. By extension, when the United Kingdom held onto the northern part of Ireland, they too were subjects of the British Empire. (It was a British empire, where the English were the dominant partners of the United ...
Where can I find a list of capitalisation rules for pure British ...
网页2012年7月31日 · If you want to know the rules for capitalising in British newspapers, a good place to start is style guides of British newspapers. Here's the entry on capitalisation in the Guardian style guide, and a blog post by their style editor on the subject. Different newspapers have different styles, and the Guardian favours fewer capitals than others.
What's the origin of the phrase "show true colours?"
网页2021年3月25日 · This phrase dates back to the 1700s. It has a nautical origin and refers to the color of the flag which every ship is required to fly at sea. Pirates used to deceive other ships by sailing under false flags so that they would not excite suspicion. The other ships, thinking that the pirates were friendly, sailed close to them and fell under ...
How offensive is it to call someone a "slag" in British English?
网页One more colorful slang term I gleaned from the British movie I recently watched is slag. In the movie, it was used in curses like, "Fuck-ing dogs! Slags." "Right slag, that one." Now I know via dictionaries that slag means "a loose, promiscuous woman." But there are multiple slang terms for such a woman in American English that have varying ...
Which is correct, "neither is" or "neither are"?
网页“Neither the Russians nor the Americans were ready to talk” is perfectly correct, but so is “Neither a British flag nor an American one flies above the pole.” The controversial case is disparate numbers where you actually have to check which part falls next to the verb, as in “Neither all the troops nor one general is ready” versus ...
Origin of "jack sh*t" - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange
网页2011年10月7日 · In British use the jack has been since the 17th c. (except under the Commonwealth) a small sized ‘Union Flag’ of the period (Union Jack), which has also been, since 1707, inserted in the upper canton of the ensign; hence, the name ‘union jack’ is often improperly applied to the union flag itself, when this is not carried or used as a jack.
"s" vs. "z" in BE vs. AE - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange
网页In both American and British English, there is a small set of verbs that must always be spelled with -ise at the end. The main reason for this is that, in these words, -ise is part of a longer word element rather than being a separate ending in its own right.
What is the origin of the British "guv"? Is it still used colloquially?
网页2011年2月27日 · Apologies for the resurrection... The term 'guv' or 'governor' is most commonly used for a reason by manual tradespeople, to denote the person paying their bill, or the person who orders and accepts their work, to distinguish from the tenant, the property's legal owner, and so on.