Iowa defined on satirical BBC radio show.

[Pedro]

The News Quiz is a satirical look at the week's news. Tonight's show made up for a bad day at the office especially the bits about Iowa and the Primaries. Try this link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06z5jmm#play

Episode 5

There is about 1 minute of the previous programme before the show starts.

The Iowa bit is about 9 mins in.

Non Brits are forgiven if they don't get all the quips in the rest of the show.

The BBC I player link will cease after 30 days.

[Cole Parker]

While we're talking Brit here, Pedro, can you tell me what you guys mean when you use the word 'close' as a noun?

C

[Pedro]

Hi Cole

Close as a noun.

- (short s) another name for a street or road, particularly a cul-de-sac or single ended street. I suspect the name was dreamt up by 'between the wars' property developers to make their estates sound grander than they were/are. Acacia Close as a name for a road where a story character lived would conjure up a middle class suburb of detached or semi-detached houses, probably tree lined. Unless being used ironically as a pretentious name for a street in a rundown area.

- (long s -z sound) finish or end. Hence - bring a meeting or deal to a close.

Do either of those fit the context you had in mind?

Another meaning but not as a noun, that is probably specific to Brits is

- (short s) careful with money, aka tight. Could apply to information as implied in the expression: he kept his cards close to his chest.

[Merkin]

Close-mouthed

[Cole Parker]

I first had to contend with 'mews', and now 'close.' Yes, it's the usage of the name of a street that was perplexing. Naming a street that is, well, 'odd' doesn't quite cover it. I live at the end of a cul-de-sac. What do we call it? A street. I think most Americans are happy not living so much in the land of the pretentious.

Thanks for the clue-in. Usually I can rely on the Urban Dictionary in these cases. Not this time. Here was the best they could do:

close

to knock boots with a member of the oposite sex, as in close the deal

close

near to having an orgasm.
on the brink of ejaculating.

Not exactly what I was looking for.

C

[ChrisR]

Thanks for the link! Marvelous show even though I'm not certain which language some of them are speaking. Reminds me of "Pardon me, I'll read that again"<?> from many years ago.

In true American gun-loving fashion, it seems that your sweet, genteel "close" is the equivalent to our "Dead End".

[Pedro]

Chris R - the panel included Susan Calman from Glasgow with a mild version of that town's accent, Andrew Maxwell from Dublin with a stronger Southern Irish accent and Zoe Lyons whose accent was very mild and I could not place. It turns out she was born in Haverfordwest, the western end of South Wales.

Yes, a Close would be a Dead End - we would say a 'No through road'

Cole - Mews is older and meant a service road at the back of a row of posh houses to allow access for the horses and carriages to the stables and carriage houses. The grooms and other staff might live in accommodation over the stables etc.

While on the subject of British meaning of words :

trump 1) (n) a trumpet or the sound of a trumpet,

2) (v)to break wind noisily, fart, (n) fart.

[Cole Parker]

That's a perfect definition for Trump: a fart in a windstorm.

C

[Nick Deverill]

trump 1) (n) a trumpet or the sound of a trumpet,

2) (v)to break wind noisily, fart, (n) fart.

So that's why Trumpington in Cambridge gives me major giggles. The naughty boy in me wants to cross out the 'ing' in the middle as it is. And of course, as fellow Brits of a similar age will know, shout out 'Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble, and Grub'.

As of course, one knows, children find fart jokes very funny, and one of the perks of being grown up is you can be a child anytime you like with nobody telling you to act your age.

[ChrisR]

That's a perfect definition for Trump: a fart in a windstorm.

I shall never again be able to listen to Bob Dylan quite the same way!

[colinian]

From the Chambers Thesaurus:

trump

verb

outdo, outshine, surpass, top, cap, eclipse, upstage
colloq. knock spots off

trump up

invent, fake, fabricate, falsify, create, devise, make up, concoct, contrive

colloq. cook up

Colin