On Wed, 4 Feb 2004 11:07:35 -0000, Sarah Beth
Post by Sarah BethPost by Hung LoHi Sarah,
Polygamy apparanty means the practise of multiple wives/husbands but is
normally applied to a man having multiple wives.
Polyandry is the opposite ie. one woman several husbands.
Thanks for clearing that up
Some people use the more correct (but IMO ugly) 'polygyny' to mean
marriage to multiple women, and 'polygamy' to refer to any marriage
involving multiple partners. However, as very few cultures have
practiced polyandry and many have practiced polygyny it's not surprising
that polygamy has become associated with the latter.
Post by Sarah BethPost by Hung LoAll flames etc. to here: http://dictionary.reference.com/ :-)
gammy
adj : (British informal) sore or lame; "a gammy foot"
Is gammy british? I always thought it was one of those words Scots use to
confuse people. Or maybe thats the other version of gammy which glaswegians
use (ie gimme a gammy)
The Concise OED (9th edition, 1996) gives it as "British colloquial" and
derives it from 'game' ("lame, crippled"), 18th century dialect of
unknown origin. My grandmother had a "gammy leg" from when she was born
in 1904, and always called it that, she was born in east London, not
Scots. I couldn't find the Glaswegian usage, what does it mean?
Post by Sarah BethPost by Hung Lopolly
\Pol"ly\, n. A woman's name; also, a popular name for a parrot.
Draw your own conclusions! lol
All women called Polly squak and are greedy?
No, they are gorgeous (a word meaning originally "brightly coloured").
Someone should have warned you that there are a load of pedants on this
newsgroup -- if you like this sort of pedanticism and word play perhaps
you might be interested in the uk.culture.language.english newsgroup.
Chris C