On Sun, 18 Dec 2005 19:11:07 -0000, "Mike Lyle"
<mike_lyle_uk@REMOVETHISyahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>Jumbo wrote:
>> On Sun, 18 Dec 2005 18:20:01 -0000, "Mike Lyle"
>> <mike_lyle_uk@REMOVETHISyahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>>> Jumbo wrote:
>>>> I need to know how you say this in English:
>>>>
>>>> "The back side of Great Britain" (meaning that there is a good -
>>>> positive - side, and a less flattering side)
>>>
>>> Trickier than it may seem. As I guess you know, "backside" means
>>> "arse". Consider "underside", "seamy side", "dark side",
>>> "underbelly", "hidden side", "Britain behind the scenes", "private
>>> life", "wild side". The founder of the Salvation Army neatly
>followed
>>> up Livingstone's "Darkest Africa" with "Darkest England".
>>
>>
>> Thanks for your answer.
>> In Danish we use an old word "vrang", which actually means the
>reverse
>> side of for instance a jacket 0r a coat ("vrang", I assume, being
>the
>> same word as wrong).
>> So we says "vrang of GB", "vrang of GB" etc. - meaning that there
>is
>> also another truth then the most welknown.
>
>I think that's an exact equivalent of our "seamy side".
>>
>> So, if I need it very short, wouldn't "dark side of GB" be the
>best?
>> Best regards
>
>I think that would be fine: it echoes the language of _Star Wars_ ,
>so people would pick it up intuitively.
>
>(By the way, more people will read your messages if you use
>alt.usage.english or alt.english.usage. The latter, like this one,
>seems probably to have been set up by mistake! On the other hand,
>there's a pretty poor "signal-to-noise ratio" on a.u.e; so you may
>find a.l.e. more convenient, if slower. A.e.u. is in between: if I
>didn't have valued friends who use a.u.e., I'd use it alone.)
OK, thank you very much.
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