Path: ...!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail
From: Adam Funk <a24061@ducksburg.com>
Newsgroups: sci.lang,alt.usage.english
Subject: Re: Inkhorns are a fascinating linguistic phenomenon, ...
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2024 12:39:04 +0100
Organization: $CABAL
Lines: 48
Message-ID: <onqqrkxgi2.ln2@news.ducksburg.com>
References: <vc2vce$198ap$2@dont-email.me> <vc3gq2$1cbvr$1@dont-email.me>
 <vc3ia5$1cm15$1@dont-email.me> <vc4j6p$1jmhv$1@dont-email.me>
 <slrnvec24s.jtd.naddy@lorvorc.mips.inka.de> <vc676q$22upl$1@dont-email.me>
 <slrnvee9ra.1arp.naddy@lorvorc.mips.inka.de> <vc7hk6$2ca11$1@dont-email.me>
 <vc7s1s$2em5q$1@dont-email.me> <877cbcgly9.fsf@parhasard.net>
 <76308de7b2b351111d3e19b78e65bde7@www.novabbs.com>
 <vc9rso$2vupf$1@dont-email.me> <vcaf6o$34bt8$1@dont-email.me>
 <vcb8gc$3csf3$1@dont-email.me> <vcbnum$3g1ce$1@dont-email.me>
X-Trace: individual.net EpWUxGl3vNaEbsrVD1GqJgP5tymEefn+6mwrkuFdKVUw7ZVS/+
X-Orig-Path: news.ducksburg.com!not-for-mail
Cancel-Lock: sha1:orY2P6TL3SnO69iZoOlz1b472ug= sha1:Fbr5KXPVoZ327F7sxjpLbMO9lU8= sha256:IGbkRgIS4NWxWKqXdzZpfiDjdaKxSblAjNj62Cc/qlA=
User-Agent: slrn/pre1.0.4-6 (Linux)
Bytes: 3425

On 2024-09-17, Peter Moylan wrote:

> On 17/09/24 16:44, Silvano wrote:
>> Peter Moylan hat am 17.09.2024 um 01:32 geschrieben:
>
>>> That reminds me of an incident in an earlier job of hers, when she
>>>  worked in a psychiatric hospital. A small town north of Newcastle
>>> had had no doctor for a long time, but Australia has a policy of
>>> getting immigrant doctors out to rural areas, so they finally got
>>> someone. That doctor sent one of his patients down to the psych
>>> hospital for assessment. The clinical notes said that he was
>>> obsessed with attacking birds.
>>>
>>> When interviewed, one of the first things he said was "Stone the
>>> crows, I don't know why they sent me here."
>>
>> I assume that "stone the crows" is a common idiom in that part of
>> Australia. 1) What does it mean? 2) Do native speakers of other
>> varieties of English know and use that idiom?
>
> Good questions. It's an Australian expression, and more specifically
> from the language of rural areas rather than the cities. I believe it's
> understood in England, although the English clearly view it as an
> Australianism. I have no idea whether it is also known in the rest of
> GB&Ireland. It is probably not understood in North America, except among
> those exposed to a lot of Australian literature.
>
> Meaning: it's a general expression of surprise or incredulity. An
> approximate equivalent is "Bloody Hell".
>
> Etymology: nobody is sure. It could derive from times when farmers hired
> people to throw stones at crows who were damaging the crops, but
> personally I can't see how that would evolve into an expression of
> surprise. I suspect that it's just a phrase that someone made up, and
> adopted by others who found it colourful.

It's also the name of a decor/housewares retailer in England (3 shops
in Derbyshire, Warwickshire, Essex):

<https://www.stonethecrowsretail.co.uk/>



-- 
Classical Greek lent itself to the promulgation of a rich culture,
indeed, to Western civilization.  Computer languages bring us
doorbells that chime with thirty-two tunes, alt.sex.bestiality, and
Tetris clones.                                         (Stoll 1995)