Re: Down the Pan [was: Re: News flash]

Oleg Lego (or somebody else of the same name) wrote thusly in message
<0nh683t3u0napt2o3l3oqnq7oaplsch96r@xxxxxxx>:

On Wed, 27 Jun 2007 13:59:28 +0100, HVS posted:

On 27 Jun 2007, Maria wrote

HVS wrote:
LFS wrote
HVS wrote, in part:

Were the multiple-name callings you're aware of also in a
fixed order, and if so, were they oldest-to-youngest?

Granny reportedly went through the names in order, oldest to
youngest, although I have probably misremembered my aunts'
actual places in the list.

But Mother-in-law recited the names in reverse order of age.

Ah; there goes that theory down the pan!

Whence "pan"? (I'd probably say "down the tubes"; others might
say "down the toilet.")

WC/lavatory pan. ("Down the toilet" doesn't really work over here,
as that's the whole room rather than the thing you sit on.)

Is "lavatory pan" a basin?

We would usually say "down the drain" or "down the tubes".

"Down the tube" tends to refer to financial losses where a specific amount
of money (or simply "a lot of money") is said to have gone so. In such
circumstances it's possible that the expression refers to the pneumatic
tubes used in some shops to send money to/from the office. Only trouble
with that explanation is that the offices tend to be upstairs from the
sales area.

At one time this expression tended to be used to refer to the money paid out
for add-on devices for the BBC Computer. (Everybody here understand the
allusion?)

In Britspeak "the Tube" is a nickname for the London Underground system so
being "down the tube" doesn't have such a negative connotation over 'ere.
--
ξ:) Proud to be curly

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