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scot47
Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 15343
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 Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 2:21 pm Post subject: |
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| Typo for "poncing". BrEng for "pimping" or "living dishonestly off the earnings of another" |
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veiledsentiments
Joined: 20 Feb 2003
Posts: 17644
Location: USA
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| Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 2:46 pm Post subject: |
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| scot47 wrote: |
| Typo for "poncing". BrEng for "pimping" or "living dishonestly off the earnings of another" |
"Pimping" has rather specific connotations in "murican" English and it wouldn't fit here.  I'd stick with sponging as the proper synonym... used with your 'friend' that smokes all your cigarettes, never buys a round, raids your refrigerator, and steals your toilet paper.
VS |
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rogan
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Posts: 416
Location: at home, in France
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| Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 6:49 pm Post subject: |
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I think most Brits would assume a "sponger" is a person who keeps 'borrowing' rather than lifting your stuff on the sly.
My London colleagues would say that your definition is more of a 'tea-leaf' |
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veiledsentiments
Joined: 20 Feb 2003
Posts: 17644
Location: USA
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| Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 12:43 am Post subject: |
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Oh no... a sponger never returns anything. Unless you count his WC deposit before flushing as a return of your beer.
VS
(funny how the same words morph into different meanings by country) |
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Sheikh N Bake
Joined: 26 Apr 2007
Posts: 1307
Location: Dis ting of ours
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| Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 1:51 pm Post subject: |
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| scot47 wrote: |
| Typo for "poncing". BrEng for "pimping" or "living dishonestly off the earnings of another" |
One of my favorite movies is Saint Jack, about an American brothel owner (Ben Gazzara) in Singapore whose best friend is a British accountant (Denholm Elliot) who visits from Hong Kong.
Eventually Elliot gets it and says "Jack, you're a...well, you're a ponce, aren't you?"
Jack (Gazzara) replies..."Hard to tell what anyone is, William...."
(For what it's worth, this was the only Hollywood movie ever set on location in Singapore. Many appearing in the film were locals, not actors, real prostitutes, along with local production staff...and since such a topic was obviously unauthorized in the fussy nanny state, they piggy-backed on an episode of Hawaii Five-Oh that was filming, and also submitted a fake script to the authories. Directed by Peter Bogdanovich) |
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svatopluk
Joined: 16 Sep 2009
Posts: 81
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| Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 4:34 pm Post subject: |
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| ... written by Paul Theroux? |
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