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Pigale, my 50-year-old sister-in-law often uses LOL (the 'laughs out loud' one) in conversation. 'OMG' is something else that now appears in speech - horrible.

I don't like LOL either Malone, but am afraid I don't know what 'OMG' stands for - am I being stupid ?


Rusty, your phrase 'get on someone's wick' is listed in my Brewer's and it comes from .............Rhyming Slang - I shall leave you to guess what rhymes with 'wick' .....

Oh My God, I can't believe you didn't know OMG.

You gave Rusty a slightly more explicit explanation than I did - mine was perhaps too vague?

No Malone, honestly I did not OMG, but it may not have made it to France yet ....(though I doubt it); I just have never noticed it mysef.

Pigale, count yourself very honoured - that was the first, and last, time I have ever used that abbreviation/word!

My reference books must be more highbrow and polite than yours! Both my Chambers and my Brewers say that "to get on someone's wick" is to annoy them!
There is another very similar phrase that does have sexual connotations...but not that one!

Malone, for those of us without a paper ( but a partiality for exclamation marks) what DID Melanie Reid have to say ?

Yes Elle, Brewer's says that it means 'to annoy someone' BUT it then goes on explaining the origins of the expression, and that makes all the difference.

Yes, the phrase DOES mean to annoy someone, but it's because the person is getting on your Hampton Wick... substitute a body part. That's my interpretation of what's written in Brewer's!

Melanie Reid noted that 'The New Yorker' once decreed that one exclamation mark was enough for one person for one lifetime. They softened the 'rules' later and said that exclamation marks could be used on special occasions; one apiece for the birth of your children; a choice few to chase off a carjacker. Melanie goes on to say ' But with email and text, the damn things are ubiquitous.' It was interesting - or perhaps, it was interesting!

Oh, but not in MY brewers, Pigale!
It does explain the origin of "to dip one's wick, though"!
We'll all be getting banned if the conversation doesn't take a turn for the more chaste turn of phrase......