phrases, sayings, idioms and expressions at

What does butcher means

Posted by Smokey Stover on July 27, 2005

In Reply to: What does butcher means posted by Fariba on July 27, 2005

: In the following sentences :
: ---what does butcher means ???

: : SLANGMAN: " 'My dear son, Slangman. I'm never going to trust your Aunt Ruth again. I agreed to go on a date with her butcher. I should have known it would be a mistake when she described him as having a "great personality."'
: In your " Meanings and origins of phrases and sayings " I found it means Sick . or may be it simply means a aperson who works/has or a butchery

There's no way I can say this without sounding condescending and snooty, but I think you're wasting your time with Slangman (a.k.a. David Burke). You will learn all you need to know about American slang if you just learn standard English by reading a lot of books--magazines, too, if you like, but you must read books. I don't mean just American books, either. Americans brought their language with them when they came from England, and since then a lot of slang has become real language on both sides of the ocean. Most educated Americans (or Brits) are completely uncomprehending of a lot of current slang. That's the whole point of slang, to be unintelligible to those old fuddy duddies who aren't in the know. If the books you read or the people you talk to contain a great deal of current slang, learning to understand them will not be the same as learning to understand English. How about non-current slang? Well, a lot of it is dead (that is, obsolete, disused, no longer heard), and the rest has become standard English.
As for the butcher, Aunt Ruth is talking about a guy who works in a butcher shop. He cuts and sells meat all day, and Slangman's mother is making a joke when she talks about Aunt Ruth suggesting that the butcher has a great personality.

Butcher does have two other uses, which I won't discuss here. They doen't apply to Aunt Ruth's friend.

If Slangman is such a great teacher of slang, why do you have to come to us for help in understanding him? Yes, Slangman is free on the Web. But second-hand books are almost as cheap, and a whole lot better written. I'm not trying to scold you, Fariba, just help you to use your time in a better and more entertaining way. SS

© 1997 – 2024 Phrases.org.uk. All rights reserved.