Re: [Leica]Back on TOPIC: pukka

["Marshall C. Hunt Jr" <huntmc2@fuse.net>]

AAh...but to this Ohioan, "pukka" evokes an image of Col. Blimp, the "pukka
sahib," sitting on the verandah in his rattan chair, reading Wodehouse and
drinking a Pimm's cup....which evokes an image from a 1950's Leica ad, which
showed two stomachs adorned with M3s where the fat one in a suit was
congratulating the slim one in a college sweater on getting his first Leica.

"Stewart, Alistair" wrote:

> Well I spent the majority of my childhood and adolescence in England,
> Scotland, and Africa, (English schools), and would offer to the American
> English speaking LUGers a translation for what "Pukka" means in that
> environment: the modern American equivalent is something like "the real
> deal".
>
> Pukka in English is not derogatory, but rather a compliment. Nor is it
> "regional" use, unless you count the English (as opposed to American
> English) speaking parts of the world as a region.
>
> "Ah yes, America and England. Two nations divided by a common language."
> Said by...?
>
> Interestingly, one of the reasons English is today's Lingua Franca of
> business, academia, etc., is the way in which foreign words have been
> absorbed into the vocabulary, without messing around with rules for how they
> are to be used. This in in depressing contrast to what is occurring in
> American English, where rules are simplified to the point where they are
> sufficiently non-specific enough to be confusing. The 'dumbing-down' of
> America (and, regrettably, those parts of the world whose populations speak
> American English).
>
> But let us not turn this into a nasty exchange about who is right/wrong
> about the meaning of PUKKA. Maybe we could go and USE our Leicas instead.
>
> Best of communication,
>
> Alistair
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Akhil Lal [mailto:alal@bcc.cuny.edu]
> Sent: Monday, November 15, 1999 10:37 AM
> To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Subject: Re: [Leica] pukka (was NY Photo Expo: A talk with
>
> Interesting regional usage. First time I've heard of
> this. It does not have this meaning for me.
> Any other Lugers care to comment ?
> Regards,
> Akhil
>
> leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us wrote:
> >
> > Pukka is used in English (at least post-colonial Canadian English) to
> denote
> > something as authentic is a degrogatory fashion.  Calling something a
> pukka
> > Leica is not a complement.
> >
> > There are many words in English that are not true English words but
> through
> > usage have attained "honorary status" as English.  Probably the most
> obvious
> > example of this is the word "gullable" which really isn't English at all
> but
> > is really Russian.  Don't believe me? Look it up!
> >
> > Jonathan (Suffering from too much LTM) Lee
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Mark Rabiner [mailto:mrabiner@concentric.net]
> > Sent: Monday, November 15, 1999 6:38 AM
> > To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> > Subject: Re: [Leica] pukka (was NY Photo Expo: A talk with Leica
> >
> > Christer Almqvist wrote:
> > >
> > > >BTW, forgive my ignorance, but what is a pukka Leica?
> > > >
> > > >Francesco Sanfilippo,
> > >
> > > pukka is Hindi and means cooked, ripe, solid, and also genuine,
> authentic,
> > > first-class or complete. Pukka was the second word I had to look up
> today
> > > when reading the mail from the LUG. Corrobate was the other. I wish the
> > > contributors would all use basic English only, or otherwise provide
> > > explanations or alternatively give translations into Swedish.
> >
> > Corrobate no in my dictionaries. Is that Hindi as well? :)
> > Mark Rabiner