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Post by Peltigera on Feb 8, 2010 5:17:07 GMT -5
To relieve the boredom of my life I have signed up for a degree in linguistics. I now have to do an assignment for marking and I need some help from non-English (but English speaking) people. A simple request - if I call someone a "tacker" what (if anything) do you think I mean?
Actually, if Joe would answer as well, that would be even better.
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Post by Georgina on Feb 8, 2010 9:29:04 GMT -5
First of all, great on you going for a new degree! What does "linguistics" entail, anyway? As for the question, reading the word "tacker" I think of "someone who tacks something" meaning likely using some sort of equipment to build or repair objects using tacks. So a job title is what I think of. I'm assuming we're not to use Google.
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Post by qhperson on Feb 8, 2010 15:02:48 GMT -5
I took one linguistics class, which is neither here nor there.
I can think of two possible meanings for "tacker": someone who tacks things (fastens them together with tacks) or someone who changes direction as the wind blows, like a sailboat.
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Post by Peltigera on Feb 9, 2010 6:08:11 GMT -5
Thank you for your replies. Together with the same question asked at work, I have enough information to use. No one knows the meaning of tacker when applied to people apart from me - it means a child and is common where I was brought up. I no longer know anybody where I was brought up - I left 35 years ago along with just about everyone I knew - so I cannot check on the word's usage there, unfortunately.
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Post by qhperson on Feb 9, 2010 9:35:39 GMT -5
Now I'm curious. Have you checked the OED? If it's not in there, you might consider writing them a letter.
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Post by joethree56 on Feb 9, 2010 17:08:54 GMT -5
Sorry John I just got to this thread. My answer though would have been the same as the others as I have never heard the word used in the context you mention.
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Post by Peltigera on Feb 10, 2010 4:11:19 GMT -5
GH, it is not in the Shorter OED (2,000 pages sort of short!) nor in the Oxford Dictionary of English in the sense I was enquiring about - but it is in the Oxford Historical Thesaurus of the English Language dated as first known (i.e. printed) in 1887. So the OED people know about it even if they do not include it.
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Post by qhperson on Feb 10, 2010 21:58:27 GMT -5
This is exactly the sort of word beloved of writers of historical fiction.
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wheelspinner
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Post by wheelspinner on Feb 19, 2010 7:20:47 GMT -5
I take "tacker" in the sense of a "little tacker", which is a little kid. Normally I would use the term about a little boy; I don't think it's used much for girls.
BTW Pelti, I posted this before I read your reply #3. So for your purposes, the term is pretty common in Australia too, I think.
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Post by Peltigera on Feb 19, 2010 10:57:41 GMT -5
Thank you, Wheelspinner. You are the second person top tell me the term is used in Australia (the other from another debate forum). The rest of the world and the rest of the UK does not know the term although it is neither Cornish nor Australian in origin.
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Calluna
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Post by Calluna on Feb 19, 2010 22:17:49 GMT -5
I'm way late on this, but I honestly hadn't a clue what the term meant when I read it. I thought it was more likely a nonsense word made up for an assignment to see how people might interpret a novel word.
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