Years and years ago, Douglas Adams and John Lloyd put out a book called The Meaning Of Liff. Later on they updated it as The Deeper Meaning Of Liff. There’s a (possibly unintentional) reference to it in the opening titles of Monty Python’s Meaning Of Life.
The book itself is a list of made up words – all taken from place names – about things that happen in life that don’t currently have words. Here is an example:
Esher (n.) One of those push taps installed in public washrooms enabling the user to wash their trousers without actually getting into the basin.
Why is this relevant? Only because when I was out for drinks on Friday night, I experienced one of these. The damn tap in the toilet was on full thrust, and sure enough I got covered in water.
Thankfully the person with me didn’t notice, or if so, she didn’t mention it. My face is red enough when drinking alcohol anyway – I don’t need to add embarrassment into the mix.
On Saturday I had a very funny conversation talking to Nat about meanings of the word piss. She’s compiling a list for her Czech boyfriend, and wanted as complete a list as possible. A while ago I did a list for the Toxic Custarpedia (a work in dire need of an update), but missed quite a few of the meanings. A scan through the Macquarie dictionary (including their slang dictionary) found a lot more. Overall there are probably upwards of two dozen ways to use piss.
