collection o' collocations

blafferty commented on the list collection-o-collocations

Not sure I would consider "tease teas" or "coffee toffee" collocations, fbharjo!

May 9, 2011

blafferty commented on the list collection-o-collocations

Tea break ... maybe in England? Anyone?

May 26, 2011

bilby commented on the list collection-o-collocations

Tea chest, but only because I remember moving house at a very young age - one of my first memories, perhaps - before cardboard cartons were standard.

May 26, 2011

blafferty commented on the list collection-o-collocations

Thanks, bilby! I've never heard tea break, let alone often enough to consider it a collocation. Tea chest I think I've read.

May 26, 2011

sionnach commented on the list collection-o-collocations

After my mother died, in 1985, I inherited one of her china services. It was all packed up and shipped to New Jersey, where I was living at the time, in a tea chest. Because back in those days, that was what one used to ship things in. I still have the entire set, fully intact. It's been used maybe a total of five times. Guess I don't throw enough dinner parties for twelve people.

May 26, 2011

sionnach commented on the list collection-o-collocations

Too tired to correct that ludicrous ambiguity in that last post. But I was living in a rented apartment, not in a tea chest.

May 26, 2011

bilby commented on the list collection-o-collocations

Tea break is certainly in use here (Australia), along with coffee break and smoko.

May 27, 2011

blafferty commented on the list collection-o-collocations

Thanks, bilby; tea break stays!

Sionnach, bilby: do you feel that tea chest is a collocation or a compound? Or can it be both?

May 28, 2011

blafferty commented on the list collection-o-collocations

Thanks,rolig!

June 4, 2011

sionnach commented on the list collection-o-collocations

I don't think tea chest belongs on this list, at least not the way I understand this list. I don't know whether such set phrases as "flotsam and jetsam" belong or not. Then there are phrases like lily-livered poltroon, which might just be natural juxtapositions in my head, but not in anyone else's. :-)

This list seems to have some partial overlap in its intent with my own "amber words" list.

June 4, 2011

blafferty commented on the list collection-o-collocations

Wow, thanks for all the contributions! The only one I'm not familiar with is neap tide.

I'll check out your amber list for yoinking.

June 5, 2011

blafferty commented on the list collection-o-collocations

Groaning board is unfamiliar to me, rolig - is it really very common in either speech or literature? And is it a collocation or a compound name for something (like tea chest)?

June 6, 2011

rolig commented on the list collection-o-collocations

A groaning board is a table (=board, as in "room and board") overflowing with delicious food, a banquet. It is an old expression that is today quaint enough to be used by restaurants and taverns as their name. It's a true collocation, I believe, not just a compound noun.

June 6, 2011

sionnach commented on the list collection-o-collocations

I have come across groaning board many times in my reading, so I concur with rolig.

(It's generally wise to concur with rolig, in my experience)

June 6, 2011

reesetee commented on the list collection-o-collocations

I concur with the advice about concurring with rolig.

June 6, 2011

blafferty commented on the list collection-o-collocations

Thanks! I did look it up, but haven't come across it before. Maybe I'm reading the wrong kinds of books.

June 6, 2011

sionnach commented on the list collection-o-collocations

Speaking of literary phrases, some possibilities might be "madding crowd", "budding grove", "darkling plain". But these strike me as being a bit too literary to be considered of general interest. Besides which, open up the list in that way, next thing you know, half of Shakespeare will have elbowed its way in.

June 7, 2011

blafferty commented on the list collection-o-collocations

Hmm, when I think "madding" I automatically think "crowd," which is kind of what I'm going for here, but that might be just because that quote is used so often. Let me check examples.

Edit: looks like it's often used with the whole "far from the" intact, but not always. Added.

June 8, 2011

blafferty commented on the list collection-o-collocations

I'm curious about jughandle left and even-toed ungulate since I don't hear them bandied about much ... or at all. Anybody?

July 18, 2011