Rude health what does it mean

Some years ago at work I was called in to settle an argument between two colleagues. One of them was from Bosnia and English was not her native language.

She had been using a battered old Oxford dictionary and had used an -ize ending. The other was trying to convince her that this was an Americanism.

My explanation that both -ize and -ise used to be acceptable in UK English and many publishing houses such as OUP who publish the OED still used the -ize endings did not seem to satisfy either party. Oh dear, Paul. Have a visual memory for words and an automatic spellcheck. As I used to work for OUP, I can explain that they use -ize spellings because they have always done since the Press was founded some years ago. It was the original British spelling.

The -ise spelling became prominent in British English much later, due to the influence of French. Certainly the edition of the Oxford dictionary I have has recognize, realize and pressurize, to take just three at random, and no -ise alternatives given. As I recall, some words entered English from the French, and therefore had -ise endings from the start.

I presume exercise and excise are two of them. They are spelt that way in this dictionary. Alastair, my memory is that at school in the north of England in the sixties, we were taught that both endings were acceptable, and I tended to use the -ize ending, just because I liked doing the loopy zed we were taught to do in cursive script.

I was a computer programmer for the Central Electricity Generating Board at that time. Interesting, Ben. I also went to school in the north of England and was told the same. Singular collective nouns now seem to be regarded as an Americanism. I would like to make an appeal for standardization of terminology for fried potato shapes.

Interestingly, Oesophagus and Oestrogen were not altered. Some drug names were also spelled differently e. Sulphonamide became Sulfonamide. This was to prevent confusion at joint American and Canadian meetings. My Canadian Anaesthetist uncle was not impressed! There was only one! We were however instructed to offer a choice, so patients could elect to go to Torbay 20 miles away, or Exeter 40 miles away, or Barnstaple?

Few patients elected for the more distant locations. Paul, what do they contend is the correct usage? And last night I was at a concert of music by Luciano Berio and some of his Sequenzas were played. After all, most people use spellcheck now, so would accept the spellcheck version as correct, so only people that refer to the original dictionary in their minds eye, which refuses to change even when faced with evidence to the contrary would be affected.

By way of explanation, my mother was born in London, so her version of spelling words may have also influenced early phonetic formation and learning. Usually, you can choose between various varieties of English in MS products. Certainly, in MS Word it will underline recognize but not recognise in my set-up.

Uncle Ben consistently serves up appetising linguistic titbits for us to enjoy but this time he has produced a veritable feast. Regarding your comment about Portuguese in Brasil..

One of my daughters worked in Joinville, Brasil largely a German immigrant population, for 6 months. One day, two young women, an Australian and a Canadian, came to the school. The local Brasilians were astonished that the three girls spoke quickly, easily and at length with each other. The school staff said they could barely understand people from Rio…… Mind you, I can barely understand people from Yorkshire….

Perhaps a shared root with 'rudimentary'? Unrefined, crude, hearty, animal health, as alike to animalistic, crude, unrefined behaviour? I note that rudimentary and rude stem from the Latin rudimentum "early training, first experience, beginning, first principle," from rudis "unlearned, untrained".

The story behind the two different meanings has to do with the way the word "rood", was used in Old Norse. It means "red". But in the North, "ruddy" also meant "in good health", because rosy cheeks meant you weren't anemic, and you were getting plenty of fresh air.

First, due to Germanic influences, the word was Healthrud or Healthrude. One sees this construction in Norse names still, for example, "Haugarud.

A clue may be gleaned when taking the meaning having to do with health, within its entire sense in the OED:. Chiefly of the sea, winds, etc. So it may help to think of the word less as merely a synonym for good health, but more toward the "boisterous" as likened to brisk ocean weather and conditions.

So we see it mixed at an early time with another similar word whose primary meaning is much closer to what we are after. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top.

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Ask Question. Asked 6 years, 8 months ago. Active 3 years, 3 months ago. Viewed 7k times. Improve this question. You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly. You should upgrade or use an alternative browser. Thread starter dhchong Start date Dec 27, Hello, members.

Here I'm wondering what does it mean by 'rude health'. Could somebody explain it? But Fiat is not in rude health at the moment, so in the future it may well be bought. Ah, I see. I thought the 'rude' has only the meaning of to be 'impolite'.

Thank you for your kind explanation.