Downton Abbey - Odd Phrase??

[Smowball]

I don't watch the programme at all so couldn't name a single character, but they showed a clip the other day in which a male character stood up at a family meal to make a speech and he said something along the lines of " doing the lottery and having the winning ticket". Surely that sentence would have made no sense in that era??

[Peter Pedant]

// I hate things which are historically incorrect, not that I'm suggesting that in Pompei they ought to have spoken Latin //

They did speak Latin in Pompeii didnt they ?
unless you are referring to the underlings who might have spoken koine Greek

The thing that did if for me:
Lady Mary texted for a taxi, and when she got in, said Shukran to the taxi driver and everyone knows that that is Arabic and the Urdu for thank you is Shukri
Terrible

[Peter Pedant]

I agree snowie


altho england had lotteries from god knows when the first act was around 1540 as amended in the 1560s. It was soon limited by law to a state monopoly and the last State Lottery was 1826 before one of the Gaming Acts ( 1826 probably ). Last refuge of the credulous and stupid apparently so public pressure grew to stop it. So at the time you are speaking there hadnt been one for 100 y.

Casinos were legalised 1968 and the Lottery reinstituted by John Major

[Everhelpful]

In one of the earlier Series someone said "As if",never watched it since.

[kvalidir]

No Peter you misunderstand me, the film ' Pompei' was what I was referring to. They DID speak Latin in the place Pompei, but clearly you couldn't incorporate that into the film as no-one would understand it, although there was that little Latin and Aramaic turn they did in Passion of the Christ :)

[naomi24]

I gave up on this programme quite early on. If the writer hadn’t been who he is, the whole thing would be languishing on the slush pile.

[Obiter]

Derek Jarman's Sebastiane has dialogue entirely in Latin, though its theme is for a more selective taste.

[Obiter]

The dowager Lady Naomi will no longer be receiving callers.

[kvalidir]

Exactly, what with the Pompeiian 'Queen's' slick Noo Joisey accent, and breathtakingly cringeworthy screenplay I somehow don't think selective taste was on their minds. Sorry I'm very down on this film because I was so disappointed because visually it was stunning, it had a good budget and the screenplay killed it. Stone dead. Along with the actors obvious discomfort as they saw disaster ( the screenplay not the Volcano) unfolding before them. Downton is a masterpiece compared to that.

[naomi24]

Obiter, at least not Julian Fellowes.

[DTCwordfan]

" the only regret I have was that I didn't study Latin harder in school so I could converse with those people."

[ludwig]

I remember seeing an early episode where Maggie Smith's character used the phrase 'True dat. Fo shizzle my nizzle'. It struck me as odd and I haven't watched it since.

[Peter Pedant]

// Derek Jarman's Sebastiane has dialogue entirely in Latin, though its theme is for a more selective taste. //

and Fellini's Satyricon has a dialog in Italian which is kinda late latin innit ?

[sandyRoe]

"Fo shizzle my nizzle." may one enquire what that means?

[Peter Pedant]

yeah Dante's Peak ( il monte di Dante o Dante arrabiato )
that dialog is not in 14th century Florentine Italian

which golly must have been a relief to American audiences

[Obiter]

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fo%27%20shizzle%20my%20nizzle

[Peter Pedant]

sandy it is unlikely as Queen Victoria might say
that any true lady would say that in public

[ludwig]

// may one enquire what that means? //

Funny, that's what Lord Grantham said.

[sandyRoe]

I see now what it means. The incongruity of it, even imagined, coming from Maggie Smith's character made me smile.

[douglas9401]

"Fo shizzle my nizzle." may one enquire what that means?"

It means words to the effect: It certainly is my African American friend or for sure my black labrador waiting for the plane to return..

[ludwig]

I do remember watching an episode of The Waltons once when one of the characters commented that someone's outfit was 'sexy'.
It was one of the later ones set in the fifties I think, but it didn't sound right for the period.