OMFG

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Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2008 11:42 am

Nanny Ogg wrote:

The pounds shillings and pence was pre 1971 ( ? )
It was also known as LSD

We now have pence and pounds
100 pence = one pound

10pence is equal to one (old ) shilling

Most of the rest of Europe have Euros

Nah, 10 pence is equal to 2 shillings. the 5pence piece is equivalent to one shilling. We also had sixpences, and thruppeny bits. I miss the old money!

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2008 11:46 am

[quote="Nelsonsbattle]
When an Roman army unit performed badly in battle, it was disciplined. All the soldiers were lined up along the edge of a bridge or aquaduct and every tenth man was pushed over the side to his death - decimal, decile, decimate all come from the same root word, one thent.[/quote]

Actually, it was more brutal than that. What usually happened was that the cohorts were split into groups of 10, and the 9 men who were being allowed to live had to beat the other man to death. The victims were chosen by drawing lots and everyone in the army was eligible for death, even the higher ranks or more powerful men in the army. It was a fate reserved for mutinous armies (or perhaps an army that broke and ran in the face of the opposition). It was never a common punishment. A good flogging usually sufficed for most infractions.

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 2628

@ Hekate
Um yup
I did apologise for my mistake a couple of posts ago.

To recreate the nostalgia for that period I'm now going to switch off the heating, dig out my duffle coat and play the "Jackie" album my sis got me for Xmas

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2008 11:55 am

^ Ah, Jackie - a classic of the genre!

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2008 11:55 am

This thread is an evil way to flush out those of us who remember the Old Money. I used to get those pink 10 shilling (50p) notes in birthday cards from aged aunts.

12 pennies = 1 shilling
20 shillling = 1 pound
21 shilling = 1 guinea

BUT a modern decimal 'penny' isn't the same and and Old Penny so

5 pence = 1 shilling
10 pence = 2 shilling (1 florin)
25 pence = half a crown (like my grandpa used to give me)
50 pence = 10 shillings
100 pence = 1 pound

Happy days.

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2008 12:01 pm

I've got a bag of old pennies, a couple of silver thrupennies and and a few farthings (one quarter of one old penny) as well. Laughing

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 2628

A the 10 bob note
< nostaligia >

I've still got some silver thrupenny bits around somewhere.

@ Hekate the Jackie album comes with a double sided poster of David Cassidy/ Donny Osmond
The songs don't quite sound the same as way back then, when I listened to them on a hissy, fuzzy Radio Luxembourg
Fab 208 Very Happy

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2008 12:06 pm

Yastreb: You're committing the Etymological Fallacy there by insisting that words can only ever have their original meanings.

Words change all the time.

I'll bet that you've used "silly" many times without even thinking that it's wrong, but that word has been through a huge change from when it first entered English.

Originally, it entered Old English (i.e., the pre-Norman Conquest version of English) as "gesaelig", meaning "happy". But over the course of the next 1000 years, it went through a change in both form and meaning. The progression is that if you're "happy" then you're favoured by God. If you're favoured by God, then you're blessed (and the word did mean "blessed" at one time in its transformation). If you're blessed and God's favourite, then people might consider you to be a bit... special (to be politically correct). It's not a far jump from someone who is "touched" to the more gentle meaning "silly" has today.
Of course, this happened very very slowly, with each step taking generations; it's not like each change happened overnight.

You can compare this to its German relation "selig" which shares the same root (not quite the same way English "decimate" and Latin "decem" have a relationship, but the connection is there), but "selig" has kept the "blessed, holy" meaning.

If you insist that "decimate" can only mean the "one-tenth" thing, then you'll have to examine all the other words you use and find out what they originally meant when they entered your language.

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2008 12:16 pm

Nanny Ogg wrote:

@ Hekate the Jackie album comes with a double sided poster of David Cassidy/ Donny Osmond
The songs don't quite sound the same as way back then, when I listened to them on a hissy, fuzzy Radio Luxembourg
Fab 208 Very Happy

Ooooh, David Cassidy!! Very Happy

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2008 12:35 pm

Otterfan; true...

I'll hold up "nice" as an example of changing meanings. It originally meant "exact", but it rarely gets used that way now.

However, if someone says "literally decimated", I expect him to use the literal meaning!

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2008 1:21 pm

Pedant post alert. Those of an intolerant disposition look away now.

Gnasher wrote:

25 pence = half a crown (like my grandpa used to give me)

Nope, 'fraid not Gnash.
12.5 pence = half-crown
25 pence = crown

And I'd have called the 10-bob note brown, rather than pink. Have a look here

Can't claim to remember the white fivers, though Very Happy

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 2628

I was sure I mind a pinkish 10/- note.
Could tey have looked more that colour when new?

Mind you we Scots do have slighlty diffrent currency from the rest of the UK.

We've still got �1 notes for a start.

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2008 2:58 pm

Gotten way off topic Neutral

IBTL

Not quite a Newb Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 41

Locked per implied OP's consent.