Expressions

[Coce]

Some time ago on a different topic ideas were exchanged between Mr.
Ghiringhelli, Beta, and myself about a word that Ghiringhelli thought was very volgar English the word vas "SHITHOUSE" my contention was
that it was widely used by English speakers, volgar it is, but basic English,
infact you can find the expression in James Joyce's ULYSSES on page 443 there is the phrase "There's a jew for you, All for number one. Cute as a shithouse rat."Ciao Coce

[refolo]

I have to agree....
Depend of who are using that expression? or for what reason? as a Joke? for instance, in Australia every second words are.......shit.

SHITHOUSE?......perhaps it wasn't any proper place to do it.
If you see the film? regarding the life of triestini? written by the nominated Irish writer in the early 1900 century?

You'll see the shit-house under the bed, in a proper crude word, he was like a poor peasant as far as expressing himself, towards us.

Maria aka Refolo

[macondo]

Possibly I'm wrong, but I have the impression that some people in Australia deliberatly use a number of very vulgar words either to shock the audience or to underscore a sort of bravado/macho attitude. In Great Britain, to be true, there is a more gentle approach to every day language. While there is a good deal of 4 letter words (of which f**k is surely the most popular), people tend to be less crude to describe intimate body functions and related situations or places...

[babatriestina]

Some authors , even classic, like using "strong" expressions. When I read "Sexus" of Henry Miller, I had to guess the meaning of a lot of words the British School didn't teach me

[refolo]

Macondo? you are spot on! This word are like the daily bread!
very embarrassing, out the mouth of 6-7 years old boys.....

Maria aka refolo

[Coce]

Macondo, I feel you are giving me the old routine of "Rough Australians",
and i don't think it's correct. We certaily have some rogh elements, but we
have some so called high society, some of them you would not think that
butter would melt in their mouths. I can assure you, Australians are only
"Chips Off the Old Block", Perhaps with a bit less pomp and cerimony,
that's all. Ciao Coce, i might add not so different from the Triestini.

[nanaia]

Dearest friends, you can feel either better or worse reading what I'm going to tell you. Unluckily, the problem of rough speaking has become universal. Even in our tiny Trieste, young people (and not only boys ) use a language that would make a sailor blush (as professor Higgins said in My Fair Lady). It is not a problem of Great Britain or Australia, unfortunately
And everywhere we can find gentle souls and rough ones: let's hope to find a majority of gentle ones (like you all )
Let me send you all my very best wishes for a Happy New Year (Macondo, tell us what your sons eat tonight: I can still see the fabulous hamburgers you posted )
Nanaia

[AdlerTS]

Is it true what they told me that english people use to call a stupid man with the female genital apparatus name exactly like we do in Trieste ?

Ps: Nanaia is unfortunately right

[Ron]

Ladies & Gentlemen

Here was I thinking that "a Trieste" was a refined and beautifully behaved place for people of culture to exchange views.

It now appears that the site actually consists of a group of like minded individuals who are not afraid to occasionally let their hair down and use all manner of very vulgar words

Long may "a Trieste" reign and FELICE ANNO NUOVO A TUTTI

Con auguri

Ron

[PeterG]

Some time ago on a different topic ideas were exchanged between Mr. Ghiringhelli, Beta, and myself about a word that Ghiringhelli thought was very volgar English the word vas "SHITHOUSE" my contention was that it was widely used by English speakers, volgar it is, but basic English,infact you can find the expression in James Joyce's ULYSSES on page 443 there is the phrase "There's a jew for you, All for number one. Cute as a shithouse rat."

I am only now catching up with all the threads in the English section, not raking over old coals.

By any standard you care to apply 'shithouse' IS a vulgar word - its undoubted widespread use has no bearing on the matter. It is not a word used in general conversation and its use shows a lack of taste and an indelicacy of manners.

The quotation you give from Joyce actually demonstrates this very point, for he puts the phrase you into the mouth of 'the Citizen' an uncouth drunk in a Dublin pub. He was referring to Leopold Bloom, the main character of Ulysses (based on Joyce himself) who, also drinking, had taunted him with 'Your God was a Jew. Christ was a Jew like me'.

Peter

[babatriestina]

We could compare the word shithouse ( which I have never used even if the meaning is obvious) with the italian p***ana, which remains also very vulgar , even if widespread, in spite of being used by that Dante in reference to Taide in the Inferno.

[Larry]

I'm afraid that the word written so many times above does, in fact, seem to be very vulgar. The 'middle-class' in Great Britain would tremble at its use in normal conversation. However, in aristocratic circles its use is very much accepted as are many other swear and blasphemous words which the 'middle-class' shudder at. When I was a small lad, some 70 odd years ago, its use was very much 'a la mode', eszpecially as I was born in the middle of the countryside where no one had a 'toilet' (lavatory) inside their houses. In fact, most of the little sheds (houses?) situated in the garden, were in fact, shithouses. Where one went to defecate. To pass water one used the most convenient and slightly hidden spot in the hedgerows! Should one use the word beginning with a 'd' or an 's' when describing a normal bodily function?
Nowadays, of course, there are lavatorys installed in almost every house in the land, commonly described as 'toilets' or, 'bathrooms' or 'the loo'.
In France, of course, they are described as a WC (water-closet)!
Cheers Larry (ex-Betfor Sigs).

[ffdt]

well, this kind of building is what is called "cesso" in italian and is surviving in some mountain's zone where there are no water if not for drinking

anyway to find it still in place is very rare

[refolo]

Because of the Queen in Virginia -America and precisely in Jamestown...
I am telling you that the word SHIT! has nothing to do with a bad word.
I had the pleasure to read.

On the bales of Manure transported from England to America in a wooden ship, some of them would leak.
The manure mixed with the warming sea water in the hold, would then fermented and some ships actually exploded from the build up the gases.

It become necessary fot the manure to be store higher within the ships, so shelving was added to accomodate this, thus the manure could not get wet. To help the men loading the ships. the sacks of manure were marchet ""STORE HIGHER IN TRANSIT""
This term shortly after was abreciatedf to the word SHIT! which is in and off still used as a manure.

Maria aka Refolo

[babatriestina]

The 'middle-class' in Great Britain would tremble at its use in normal conversation. However, in aristocratic circles its use is very much accepted as are many other swear and blasphemous words which the 'middle-class' shudder at. .

it remembers me the word "stronzo": if I say that word to someone, he will probably take it as offensive, but it was used by some high class people very frequently applied to people, and now we can buy some books "Come essere una stronza" or something like this and they mean how to become very smart, capable and wealthy.

the word "cesso" originally meaned a retired place, as the word "ritirata" which is used only in the old railways station. Every word applied to the places used for those corporal functions becomes, after use, a dirty word.

[refolo]

Read THE WOMEN OF JAMES JOYCE!

They are sitting on the "" so called ""BUCALIN"" all the time.......

especially in Trieste between 19 20 towards, the language was unreal!

Nothing was dirty everything real! Daily happening.

Maria aka Refolo

[Coce]

Further back I quoted James Joyce's Ulysses in regard to the frase "Shit House" of course it is volgar, to talk about shit is always volgar. I don't
think that the book is particularly volgar in today's terms, but perhaps Joyce became famous for being a leader in using volgarity in literature
early in the last Century. I know that Joyce is loved in Trieste if only for the fact that he lived in the City for a number of years. For my part I have found Ulysses the most icoherent book I ever read, and I have read a few. In regard to volgarity. Our world is made up of many social strata
in all countries and cities and in all of them there are people using volgar language continually as a matter of fact, but of course there are many
polite people as well. Ciao to you all. Coce

[babatriestina]

I'm ashamed to confess, but I never read anything of Joyce! not in original nor in translation.
But, speaking of vulgar words, I found in a school library ( ) Sexus of Henry Miller: at the beginning I didn't understand a lot of words, then , by the context and by the similarity wich some German dirty words I knew, I guessed .. . The book I found very cahotic and very little interesting ( always the same thing... ), but I learnt a lot of new words!!