fiver, pig's ear, ruff, alabaster, contrarian, piping-hot, make a pig of yourself

PIZZA PARTY: 5 pigs and a pug pig out on a piping-hot pizza. Don’t make a pig of yourself! http://abcn.ws/2F9UvZ5





In the village of Snarford, the tiny Church of St. Lawrence gives no suggestion of the extravagant alabaster statues within — funeral monuments of the St. Paul family, local grandees who though not separatists, became staunch Puritans. Sir George, the last and wealthiest of the clan, and his wife, Frances Wray, are propped up on their right elbows, as if watching television on the couch. He’s wearing armor and she has on a starched white ruff.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jFwdGho1IA

Voices: Ruffed Grouse

New £5 note: Consumers face wait for plastic fiver

BBC News‎ - 1 day ago

New £5 note: Consumers face wait for plastic fiver ... The new five pound note under water ...

How to get your hands on the new plastic fiver

Mirror.co.uk‎ - 1 day ago

New plastic £5 note featuring Sir Winston Churchill enters circulation

Telegraph.co.uk‎ - 1 day ago

alabaster[al・a・bas・ter]

• 発音記号[ǽləbæ`stər, -bɑ`ːs-]

[名][U]

1 雪花石膏(せっこう)：彫刻材料.

2 霰石(あられいし)：1の代用となる方解石類.

━━[形]雪花石膏で造られた［のような］；なめらかで白い.

 alabaster effigy


ruff
(rŭf)
n.

1. A stiffly starched frilled or pleated circular collar of lace, muslin, or other fine fabric, worn by men and women in the 16th and 17th centuries.
2. A distinctive collarlike projection around the neck, as of feathers on a bird or of fur on a mammal.
3. A Eurasian sandpiper (Philomachus pugnax) the male of which has collarlike, erectile feathers around the neck during the breeding season.

[Perhaps short for RUFFLE¹.]

ruffed ruffed adj.

ruff1

Syllabification: ruff

Pronunciation: /rəf/

noun

• 1A projecting starched frill worn around the neck, characteristic of Elizabethan and Jacobean costume.
  

  More example sentences

• 2A projecting or conspicuously colored ring of feathers or hair around the neck of a bird or mammal.
  

  More example sentences

• 3 (plural same or ruffs) A northern Eurasian wading bird, the male of which has a large variously colored ruff and ear tufts in the breeding season, used in display.
  

  • Philomachus pugnax, family Scolopacidae; the female is called a reeve

  More example sentences

Derivatives

ruffed
adjective

More example sentences

rufflike

Pronunciation: /-ˌlīk/

adjective

Origin

early 16th century (first used denoting a frill around a sleeve): probably from a variant of rough.

***

piping hotadjective, adverb 

UK ​ /ˌpaɪ.pɪŋ ˈhɒt/ US ​ /ˌpaɪ.pɪŋ ˈhɑːt/ usuallyapproving

​

Piping hot food or drinks are very hot.

make a pig of yourself

disapproving

​

to eat too much:

They made complete pigs of themselves at the dinner.

Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang:

pig's ear

noun

noun, Brit

1: Rhyming slang for 'beer'. (1880 —) .
J. Curtis But the most of the fiver would go in the old pig's ear (1936).

2: to make a pig's ear of to botch, ruin, make a mess of. (1954 —) .
D. Adams What use is your life to anyone? When I think of what you've made of it the phrase 'pig's ear' comes irresistibly to mind (1979).

****A Phrase A Week - Pig's ear

Pig's ear

Meaning

As 'pig's ear' - Cockney rhyming slang for beer.
As 'in a pig's ear' - an expression of disbelief.
As 'make a pig's ear of ' - make a mess or muddle.

Origin

The Cockney rhyming slang version of 'pig's ear' is easiest to explain. It's one of the earliest examples of the form and appears in D. W. Barrett's Life & Work among Navvies, 1880:

"Now, Jack, I'm goin' to get a tiddley wink of pig's ear."

That's easy enough to decipher as "I'm going to get a drink of beer", although you would need a Cockney for an explanation of why 'tiddley wink of pig's ear' was thought to be an improvement on 'drink of beer'. 'Pig's ear' rhymes with 'beer' and that's usually enough for rhyming slang. Franklin's Dictionary of Rhyming Slang lists several alternatives for 'beer' - 'Charlie Freer', 'far and near', 'never fear', 'oh my dear', 'red steer', 'Crimea', and 'fusilier' but 'pig's ear' has always been the most popular.
The version 'in a pig's ear' is also perplexing. It originated in the USA in the 1850s as a variant of 'in a pig's eye'. Both phrases were used as expressions of incredulous disbelief and have the same meaning as 'tell it to the marines'. They may possibly be related to 'pigs might fly'. See this link for more on 'in a pig's ear'.
'Make a pig's ear' is a mid 20th century phrase and means 'completely botch something up; make a complete mess of it'. This is first found in print in a 1950 edition of the Reader's Digest:

"If you make a pig's ear of the first one, you can try the other one."

The expression derives from the old proverb 'you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear', which dates from the 16th century. The English clergyman Stephen Gosson published the romantic story Ephemerides in 1579 and in it referred to people who were engaged in a hopeless task:

"Seekinge too make a silke purse of a Sowes eare."

'Make a pig's ear of' alludes to what might be the result if someone did try to make something from a sow's ear - not a silk purse but a complete mess.





Chalmers Johnson, contrarian scholar on Asia, dies
BusinessWeek
By JAY ALABASTER
 American scholar Chalmers Johnson, a sharp critic of US foreign policy whose views on Japan's economic rise bucked the establishment 30 ...


con·trar·i·an (kən-trâr'ē-ən)

n.
One who takes a contrary view or action, especially an investor who makes decisions that contradict prevailing wisdom, as in buying securities that are unpopular at the time.

contrarian contrarian adj.

contrarian

 音節

con • trar • i • an

発音

kəntréəriən

[名]

1 ((形式))反対意見の人；へそ曲がりの人.

2 《証券》反対思考の株式投資運用者：一般に「売り方針」のときに「買い方針」をとるなど.

fiverLine breaks: fiver

Pronunciation: /ˈfʌɪvə/

Definition of fiver in English:

noun

1British informal A five-pound note.

1.1North American A five-dollar bill.