| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 954.1 | Piling Ossa Upon Stephen Potter? | SKIVT::ROGERS | SERPing toward Bethlehem to be born. | Fri Mar 27 1992 10:19 | 22 |
| Two definitions - neither of which is terribly relevant to the great
HUMANE::DIGITAL Dunkin' Donuts Debate:
1. If you ride Motorcycle Trials, a game involving riding very
specialized bikes very slowly over impossibly impassible terrain
without putting your feet down, you want a bike which is a real
"plonker". A plonker has an engine which revs slowly and has
ginormous torque - a sort of two wheeled John Deere. Ossa, a
Spanish manufacturer who used to be a power in trials bikes, had a
very successful model back in the 70's which was sold in this
country as the Ossa Plonker.
2. When I was a child, I used to read the Stephen Potter "-manship"
books (Gamesmanship, One-Upmanship, Lifemanship). I remember
Potter recomending that his acolytes assume a "plonking tone" when
holding forth on some absurdity. I always interpreted it to mean a
sort of self-righteous, pompous, hectoring tone of voice - much like
the general tenor of a Notorious Noter who will remain nameless (hey,
I'm hip to the controversy in 38.69. :<{))
Larry
|
| 954.2 | I should have guessed :-( | SSDEVO::EGGERS | Anybody can fly with an engine. | Fri Mar 27 1992 12:23 | 13 |
| <<< HUMANE::HUMANE$DUA1:[NOTES$LIBRARY]DIGITAL.NOTE;1 >>>
-< The DEC way of working >-
================================================================================
Note 1806.84 Dunkin Doughnuts in MRO1 84 of 85
MU::PORTER "just drive, she said" 7 lines 27-MAR-1992 14:58
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
English as she is spoke
-----------------------
This being a family notesfile, I can't be explicit about
describing the meaning of "plonker". Suffice it to
say that BEING a big plonker is usually considered bad,
but HAVING a big plonker...
|
| 954.3 | | SSDEVO::EGGERS | Anybody can fly with an engine. | Sat Mar 28 1992 12:46 | 10 |
| Well, here is another definition that differs considerably from the
previous.
PLONK is colloquial corruption of the French "Vin-Blanc"
Vin-Blanc is not exactly one of your superior wines, and tends
to be consumed by the Peasant Classes.
A PLONKER is therefore a Person of Low Class addicted to Vin-Blanc.
In other words, a bit of a twit.
|
| 954.4 | Peasants don't drink white wine | PASTIS::MONAHAN | humanity is a trojan horse | Sun Mar 29 1992 02:08 | 12 |
| I would dispute .3 on technicalities. I believe that "plonk" in
that sense does have that derivation, but to classify a British person
by their taste in wine would be ridiculous as a derivation for
"plonker" since until fairly recently it was only the upper classes
that drank *any* wine. The lower classes drank beer, cider, gin, and in
some places whisky. Wine was an expensive imported luxury.
In Southern France (this area) the cheap red wine is always cheaper
than cheap white wine (cost about $4 per gallon to translate into U.S.
terms) by about 20%. The "clochard" is always depicted drinking red
wine. The French have several contemptuous terms for cheap red wine,
but I have not heard of any for cheap white wine.
|
| 954.5 | My plonker is 20 years old! | MINNIE::SHONE | Keith Shone @RKA 830-4074 | Mon Mar 30 1992 01:29 | 12 |
| Used in the British Meteorological Office over 20 years ago.
A plonker was a small piece of perspex. The surface of the perspex was
scored using a fine point, to produce a scale. The marks were rubbed with
graphite or similar to render them legible.
Various plonkers were produced to interpret the spacing of isobars,
isotherms, contours and other diagrammatic representations of
meteorological data.
I have still have the plonker I used for determining the thickness of
atmospheric layers from temperature/height diagrams.
|
| 954.6 | You can find it in dictionaries now... | PAOIS::HILL | Another migrant worker! | Mon Mar 30 1992 01:37 | 8 |
| Plonker - noun - slang - a stupid person.
In the UK I think it came into widespread usage as a result of the TV
comedy series "Only Fools and Horses". One of the 'heroes' of the
series Derrick, aka Del-boy, often referred to his younger brother
Rodney as a "plonker" or even as a "right plonker".
Nick
|
| 954.7 | "Watch my Lips" | LARVAE::NOBLE | | Mon Mar 30 1992 06:22 | 12 |
|
The easiest way to work out what a Plonker is is to translate
into Local Language.
As in all cases where the Field need support called up Atlanta
and asked them to tell us of a Prominant American Plonker.
Apparently the Vee Pee is one.
Does that Help
:-)
|
| 954.8 | Older? | MARVIN::KNOWLES | Caveat vendor | Mon Mar 30 1992 06:27 | 16 |
| I suspect that the usage given in .6 is a good deal older than
Only Fools and Horse.
In the late '60s my physics master's nick-name was Plonker. I wasn't
in on the christening, but I imagine that - as his diction was a
strange mixture of ponderous and rustic - people gave him that monicker
because it was current/nascent slang for an idiot.
(I'm not sure of the sequence of events, but maybe the BBC stopped
Del-boy calling Rodney a plonker when they found - or imagined -
some kind of scurrlious etymology for the word. In later episodes
he called Rodney a dip-stick. At first, I thought this was a reference
to Rodney's build; I've since heard it used of short fat people to
imply that they're stupid.)
b
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| 954.9 | from my experience... | AUSSIE::WHORLOW | Bushies do it for FREE! | Tue Mar 31 1992 00:16 | 22 |
| G'day,
A plonker is also a kiss - usually of the sort issued by maiden
aunts...
ie he received a plonker on the cheek....
I cannot recall having heard it in reference to a motor cycle, though a
big over-square engine like on the old 650 Panther would be a
plonker...
Re dip stick - it has nothing to do with build.... tall skinny people
can be real dip-sticks also... try some rhyming slang....;-)
Plonk is certainly cheap wine....and having a big plonker would
conceivably be seen as an attribute (by some).
derek
|
| 954.10 | | ARRODS::DOOLABH | | Tue Mar 31 1992 04:12 | 28 |
| The definition of a PLONKER:
For the Americans to understand the real meaning of a PLONKER I would be well
justified in saying "Take Dan Quayle" as an example.
From the Oxford Dictionary :-
PLONKER - Idiot, deriving from Plonk.
PLONK - 2 meanings - 1. To drop or be dropped, esp. heavily: he plonked the
money on the table.
2. Alcoholic drink, usually wine, esp. of inferior
quality.
For anyone wanting to know whether they are PLONKERS or not you can write to:-
MR DEREK TROTTER
c/o TROTTER INTERNATIONAL TRADING CO (TITCo) LTD
JULIUS NYERERE ESTATE
NELSON MANDELA HOUSE
PECKHAM
LONDON
UNITED KINGDOM
Mr. Trotter would appreciate a stamped addressed envelope for any prompt
replies.
|
| 954.11 | | JIT081::DIAMOND | bad wiring. That was probably it. Very bad. | Tue Mar 31 1992 17:51 | 11 |
| >For anyone wanting to know whether they are PLONKERS or not you can write to:-
>MR DEREK TROTTER
...
>UNITED KINGDOM
>Mr. Trotter would appreciate a stamped addressed envelope for any prompt
>replies.
Of course, if anyone includes a stamped envelope, but they're writing from
someplace where they have to put "UNITED KINGDOM" in Mr. Trotter's address,
I'd say they're a plonker.
[Though for the time being, I wouldn't say it inside Digital's properties.]
|