Gair neu Idiom y Diwrnod - Word or Idiom of the Day

Ha, ha, ha! :smile: Except that’s not what “sticky back plastic” was. “Sticky tape” is Sellotape, “Sticky back plastic” was Fablon. And Google tells me Fablon still exists!

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The magic of Blue Peter!

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I have some.
Sue

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You’re a dark horse, Sue…
:wink:

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I covered my old work tops with it years and years ago! Brilliant stuff!

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Unfortunately this is the bit (as far as the joke is concerned) that get’s lost in translation. Tudur Owen, in this context, is deliberately miss-translating sticky back plastic. He’s kind of saying ‘look, we, live in rural Wales, let’s not have this nonsense of having lots of different posh words for things - if it’s plastic and it’s sticky on one side then it’s simply selotape.’ This kind of becomes the joke.

Tudur is around my age group - brought up with every high street Woolworths selling rolls and rolls of decorative Fablon and our mothers covering everything in it from cupboard doors to our school books… :joy:

Hope this makes sense! :wink:

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Word of the Day 30/04/2018

Crwydro [crew-id-ro] (crwyd rhymes wirh druid and ro is as in ROck pROd and ROss - crwydro is two syllables crwyd-ro)
Crwydr [crew-dr]
Crwydryn [crew-id-rin]

Crwydro means to wander or roam.
Crwydr means a wander/wandering/roaming
Crwydryn means a wanderer or a vagabond

Sheep can crwydro and your mind can crwydro. Also you can go on a crwydr or your mind can go on a crwydr.

Sound file -

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Well I am 53 and I love this book! Don’t understand it all though!

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I come from a slightly older more senior generation, but I can still relate to this. In the heady days of post-war (relative) prosperity, it was plastic table cloths, and then formica-covered everything. My mum still uses her formica-covered kitchen table. Both of them are still going strong, give or take a few creaks in the legs. :slight_smile: ) .

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I tend to confuse this with mwydro, which I see literally means to bewilder, or to confuse.

ISTR on Rownd a Rownd, people get accused of mwydro when they are basically malu (ahem) awyr.

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Lovin this thread Catrin. Cymraeg is so rich with wonderful phrases. I’ve just come across these four which I felt I just has to share:
Salwch nos Sul - a Sunday night illness,
Sioni bob ochr - a man who agrees with everyone,
Strim-stram-strellach - helter-skelter, all over the place,
and Sbectol gwrw - beer goggles.
Diolch eto, Chris.

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Word of the Day 02/05/2018

Today my children begin a week of national statutory tests in school - they’re reaction (and mine\0 was that they are very boring…

Diflas = deev-lass
Diflasu = deev-lassie

Diflas means boring/dull/uninteresting/tedious/tastless
Diflasu means to become or to be bored or miserable, or to make something boring or tasteless.

Dw i yn teimlo’n ddiflas means I feel bored.
Mae hyn yn ddiflas means Tthis is boring._
Mae hi yn ddiflas means She is boring.
Mae profion yn ddiflas means Tests are boring.

Dw i wedi diflasu means I have become bored.
Mae o wedi cael ei ddiflasu means It has been made boring/uninteresting/tasteless.
Mae o wedi cael ei ddiflasu means He has been made to feel bored.
Mae o wedi fy niflasu fi means He has made me bored. or He has bored me.

di in Welsh means without and blas in Welsh means taste. So di-flas / diflas literally means without taste. As in diacen (acen meaning accent) means without an accent and dienaid (enaid meaning soul) means soulless.

Sound file -

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I can’t be sure, but I think I heard a “southerner/hwntw” on the radio pronouncing this as the slightly lazier “amroo”

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That is quite right! :slight_smile:

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these are all wonderful!

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Word of the Day 03/05/2018

Tryloyw = truh-loy-oo
Tryloywder = truh-loy-oo-dehr
Tryleu = truh-lay
Tryleuder = truh-lay-dehr

Tryloyw means transparent
Tryloywder means transparency
Tryleu means translucent
Tryleuder means translucency

Sound file -

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Hi Catrin
Is this still ok for “The weather is miserable”? (90’s CBAC Learner stuff, that has stuck with me).

Love this one! This is doubly useful to me, as I’m a programmer and therefore dw i’n lawrlwytho rhwybeth pob dydd! and also I have two dogs that I’ve taken to shouting at in Welsh, so “lawr” will come in very handy just before “Merch dda!”

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Diolch Andy, plenty more where they came from! A very good book for lots of these is “Welsh Phrases for Learners” by Leonard Hayles, published by Yr Lolfa, ISBN 0 86243 364 9.

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Tryloyw consists of gloyw (bright, clear, shiny, gleaming) (but what is the ‘Try’ suffix?)

This is why the Welsh for Gloucester is Caerloyw due to the flooded river plains especially during winter.

Even the modern English name Gloucester today has not corrupted the word Gloyw beyond recognition (Cester being Caer (fort) in Welsh)… amazing to see hints to pre-English settlement days in placenames in England

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