The podcast this week was mainly about theatre, but started with a bit of chat about coming to live in Spain…

Here are some phrases that popped up which may be of interest, highlighted in the Transcript

Pick up on: Notice or perceive. As if someone has dropped an idea into a conversation unthinkingly and you’ve picked it up and paid attention to it. I picked up on his bad mood.

Faze: Throw you off balance, rattle or disconcert. It comes from Old English meaning to drive away, or make someone flee. So it’s easy to see how, if you are fazed, you may want to run away because you feel uncomfortable. Not to be confused with phase. Though pronounced the same. Happy days.

Short notice: With very little warning. Notice here is news, so the phrase means being informed about something with very little time before it’s going to happen, and in Spanish, the word for news is noticias. There’s a link! There always is. Although we use notice to mean to see or perceive, and also a notice is like an informative sign, it is also used to mean the audition or production calls in the theatre. So even without meaning it, we’re back to stage!

Small talk: Chit chat. Talking about the weather for want of any other topic in common. Oh, the Brits are experts at small talk. If there were Olympics for small talk, we’d win all the medals. Or we’d medal. An appalling verb created from the noun, in my opinion. Because it sounds the same as meddle. And that’s far from the same thing. In fact, if you meddle in the Olympics, you could be accused of cheating. I love language, but sometimes it’s just annoying!

Get my head around it: Understand, manage to fathom. I like the idea of your brain trying to physically wrap itself around an idea in order to capture it to cogitate later.

Getting on: Becoming older; sometimes used in a kindly, or, some might say, a euphemistic sense, becoming old. The difference between being an old lady or an older lady is quite substantial. The first suggests you’re done for. The second that you have elegance and grace at an advanced age. I’m an older lady, for the record. Not an old one. Yet.

At odds with: In contradiction to, or disagreeing with. One theory is that it comes from the idea of evens and odds, like even and odd numbers. Or perhaps from the sense of something being odd, a little bit off… At any rate, to be at odds with someone is not being on the same page. (Sorry, yet another idiom, I can’t help myself!)

Dried up: Stopped the flow of. It makes sense. In the podcast we talk about funding drying up. But in theatre we also use the phrase to dry, meaning you’ve gone blank, forgotten your lines. The free flow of words, as if they were liquid, has become an arid desert and you are left with nothing to say. Not a fun feeling when you’re on stage!

Make a comeback: Something that went out of fashion but is now becoming popular again makes a comeback. And it’s strange, because things often do. Take vinyl. Take flares. Personally speaking, I would like quills to make a comeback, but that’s just whimsy. Very impractical. But romantic. These days it would be good if people knew how to handwrite though… After all, the technopalypse is coming…

Pantomime: This is an interesting one. A comic musical show usually performed at Christmas and based on a fairy tale or folk tale, where the principal boy is played by a woman, and the Dame is a man playing an older woman, with topical comedy and a lot of slapstick thrown in for good measure. There is plenty of audience participation, indeed it’s required. It has its roots in the 18th century, in Britain, but was greatly influenced by the Commedia dell’arte (16th century), along with British 17th century music hall beginnings. And incidentally, the word pantomime, means “Imitator of all” (Pan=all, Mime=imitate) and what is theatre if not imitation?

Does exactly what it says on the tin: Is does, or is, exactly what you expect. I’m reminded of a TV advert from the 1980s for Ronseal Quick Drying Woodstain… Or maybe it’s not a phrase at all, just literally the tagline for that advert which has stayed with me!

Tattoo: A military tattoo refers to a drum beat, or drum performance. It purportedly comes from the 1600s when soldiers lingering in a tavern would be called back to their barracks for the night. The word literally comes from the idea of  shutting off the beer taps. Tap-to. The Edinburgh Tattoo is a spectacle of military bands, performances, and ceremony. Something to behold.

Alive and kicking: Undaunted. Firing on all cylinders. It’s often used to defend something that was seen by some to be finished, over, dead and buried, but turns out to be flourishing.

Pull off: Manage to do something successfully, normally something difficult. No-one thought he was going to pass his driving test, but he pulled it off. I pulled it off on my third go, incidentally. And I attest to the fact that it made me a better driver and will hear no naysayers. Pretty frustrating though.

Comes into its own: Find its true place and calling and be accepted and respected. He had never been a confident boy until he started playing basketball, discovered his talent and really came into his own.

Tackle the issue: Face and try to deal with a problem. The word tackle probably comes from take, with the meaning of grasp or seize. Like taking an opportunity. And tackle has the sense of take on, meaning to assume responsibility for something and try to deal with, or resolve it. Is that the same as a tackle in football? Well, I can kind of see a link… Fishing tackle is another story. Unless it refers to all your lines getting tangled…

And that’s all for today! I hope there have been some interesting titbits for you.

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Theatre in the UK Pot Pourri

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