Glossary entry

English term or phrase:

a-funting, a-thraking and a-wornapping

English answer:

hunting, tracking and napping

Added to glossary by Will Matter
Aug 2, 2004 00:13
19 yrs ago
English term

a-funting, a-thraking and a-wornapping

English Art/Literary Cinema, Film, TV, Drama
"Good Life"

George:
Where have you been hiding yourselves?
Tom:
Us'n George? We'm been a-funting and a-thraking and a-wornapping, didn't 'un?

Geeeee...

Discussion

Non-ProZ.com Aug 2, 2004:
Dusty asker can confirm: this is the UK comedy series :)

Responses

+1
2 hrs
Selected

Idiomatic usage, stylistic and literary usage

The writer is expressing the way that speaker is speaking, the meaning (in standard English) is "We were hunting and tracking and were (also) napping". Strange but true. HTH.
Peer comment(s):

agree sarahl (X) : kawatta hirune da neee!
1 hr
Kono hitotachi mo chotto kawattan ja nai ka? Omoshirooooi.
neutral Maisar : The words in the show are invented by the character as cod yokel talk and understood by viewers as such - any resemblance to real words is purely coincidental.
8 hrs
Too, too big of a "coincidence" as to be entirely accidental IMHO, after all, the linguistic underpinnings of everything said IS English, speakers statement reflects that, unconsciously or otherwise, stand by my answer.
neutral Tony M : Yes, I have to agree with Maisar's comment; apart from anything else, hunting etc. would have been rather against Tom's self-sufficiency ethic; I'm sure these are MEANT to be made-up words, even if there is coincidental resemblance to certain real words
18 hrs
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Even if id doesn't make much sense in English, I have to translate ot somehow... Thank you all for your help. Btw., Dusty, in this episode Jerry went on holidays to Kenya. ;)"
+2
1 hr

Hunting

Funting:
In those days, deer was very numerous, and the Indians, in spring and summer, hunted them with their hounds into the river, where it was no trouble to kill them. I have seen hunters drive a deer right before the bow of their canoe, all the way from near Percy Boom to the Fetterly Landing and Mr. Fetterly was one of them. Most every fall, hunters from Rawdon and Sidney with their dogs, came up and camp by the riverside and kill vast numbers of fine deer and take waggen-loads to Halleville and elsewhere to sell. I have known John Waver, of Rawdon, to spend weeks in Seymour, funting deer; and I have seen, the trees all round him camp hung with dead deer, ready to be loaded into his waggon
I have also come across fox-funting (in England)

Thracking:
"I WAS out thracking hares meeself, and I seen a fine puss of a thing hopping, hopping in the moonlight, and whacking her ears about, now up, now down, and winking her great eyes, and--"Here goes," says I, and the thing was so close to me that she turned round and looked at me, and then"
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/yeats/fip/fip46.htm

But I have never encountered wornapping...


Peer comment(s):

agree Vicky Papaprodromou
48 mins
Thank you Vicky
agree Eva Karpouzi
58 mins
Thank you
Something went wrong...
+2
8 hrs

See explanation below...

Knowing this comedy series (I'm assuming this is the UK one?) as well as I do, I don't think there is any 'real' intended meaning in these words --- I get the impression is just using 'mock' rustic language, with words that the writers probably picked almost at random, or even made up (or thoguht they were so doing...)

I'm a bit puzzled, perhaps Asker could confirm if this IS the UK series, as I thought the characters were called Tom and Jerry? Is George an error, or is this another character --- or have I just got the wrong series?

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 21 hrs 27 mins (2004-08-02 21:40:51 GMT) Post-grading
--------------------------------------------------

Thanks, Asker for that confirmation; in that case, I feel even more confident about my answer. BTW, OED does not list \'funt\' or \'wornap\', and only lists \'thrack\' (NOT \'thrake\') as a \'long dialect\' word meaning \'to cram or pack in\' --- nothing seemingly to do with \'tracking\'. As for \'funting\', Traviata\'s reference above seems to suggest a US connection (if it\'s not a spelling error anyway), while this is a SO BRITISH comedy show.

Just to follow up Maisar\'s comment --- I was sad to learn that Stanley Unwin is no longer with us, he was a side-splitting part of my childhood. But I think his spoonerisms and mixed-up but plausible-sounding words were a little different from this kind of cod-yokel \'worzel-speak\' (sometimes likened to \'Mumerset\'), of which I think the prime example (if not true precursor) was the Ramblin\' Sid Rumpole character
Peer comment(s):

agree LJC (X) : oo aarrh! (if it is indeed the series you're thinking of)
42 mins
Thanks, Lesley!
neutral Will Matter : too close to what i propose to be entirely accidental...No, i meant that i don't accept this just as 'coincidentally' resembling English, no reflection on your answer whatsoever.
1 hr
Thanks, Willmatter! But what on earth do you mean 'entirely accidental...' I hope you're not suggesting I copied your work to try and score the points???!!! No, I think the difference is I've explained a cultural nicety that Asker might have missed...
agree Maisar : The late Professor Stanley Unwin was perhaps the foremost authority on the subject.
2 hrs
Thanks, Maisar! Oh yes indeed! And do you remember Kenny Williams' 'Ramblin' Sid Rumpole'? :-))
Something went wrong...
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