Posted by Alan Hakim on October 22, 2000 at 16:42:56 from 195.44.15.5:
In Reply to: Re: Pigeon Post Observations (not posted by Bob Hollis on October 22, 2000 at 07:05:00:
Lots of interesting questions, mostly deriving from the notorious "separation by a common language". In the absence of so much from your dictionary, you have done a good job of guesswork. But maybe you need to buy an Oxford dictionary. Do you know anyone who was around in the USA in the 20s? Talking to them, I find that a lot of words no longer known in the States but still current in UK were common to both countries in AR's time.
To some of your questions:
1. A knobkerry is a strong stick with a knob at its head, useful for hitting people. Probably from South Africa. In Ireland, called a shillelagh.
3. A baulk is a large piece of timber, relatively unshaped. One stage up from a log.
4. Bruce Clarke has given a good explanation. They are widely known as Tilley Lamps, and were in common use when I worked in India in the 60s.
6. "Two ticks" was extremely general usage when I was young.
8. I haven't checked, but I would be surprised if breakfast mushrooms don't appear somewhere in P G Wodehouse too. Not to mention countless detective novels of the Agatha Christie type.
10. I think "Mort" is still current in the North of England.
18. Diamond Mines: possibly in South Africa if he had acquired a knobkerry. But the South African diamond mines are relatively recent (about 100 years). Before that, diamonds came from Brazil and India. My wife's engagement ring (now my daughter-in-law's) is a family heirloom inherited from my great-grandmother, who would have been married in about 1860. It has Brazilian diamonds.
Brazil and Peru have a common frontier ....
19. Caster sugar is still an everyday thing in UK. Very good sprinkled ("cast") on strawberries: what do you use?
By the way, it's castOr oil, and very nasty. Apparently it comes from beavers.