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Rings and bands...

(38 Posts)
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Witzend Thu 02-Aug-18 11:03:13

I know I am BU and a grumpy old hag to boot, but the increasing use of 'band' for (wedding) ring does irritate me.

I thought it had probably come into US English via German (same as 'dumb' from 'dumm' meaning stupid) but being unsure I looked up 'band' in my ancient German dictionary.

There is no mention of 'ring' but one of the meanings given is 'bond, fetter, chain' !!
So maybe I was right after all....
(Not that I look on my own wedding ring in that light!)

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Annapops Thu 02-Aug-18 22:44:19

"We kissed after taking vows, but that night on our honeymoon, we slept in separate rooms......" Wedding band! I shall never sleep tonight now. X

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Jalima1108 Thu 02-Aug-18 23:12:12

hmm so why did he sleep in a separate room?
I never knew

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Chewbacca Thu 02-Aug-18 23:15:04

Because he wasn't up for it Jalima.

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Agus Thu 02-Aug-18 23:23:23

Oh no?. I had been humming this tune for ages after my visit to this thread this morning. As the day went on, I mentally scrubbed it?

Now the ear worm is back !! And I so look forward to this lullaby at bedtime......NOT

I blame you Annapops ?

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gillybob Thu 02-Aug-18 23:49:52

^so why did he sleep in a separate room?
I never knew^

Reading between the lines wink Jalima I think there was a link between him (in this song) and that bloody woman in

“it should’ve been me”..........”ohhhhhh lord it should’ve been me”

And.... while we’re at it....... “why did the “preacher raise his hand?” Who was he about to smack?

confused

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Annapops Fri 03-Aug-18 07:58:58

Whoops. So sorry Agus. Hope you eventually slipped into the land of nod. It took me a while but the song is here again this morning. Hopefully after my swing fit class it will have changed to Jack the Knife. Have a lovely day all. X

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Bathsheba Fri 03-Aug-18 09:10:53

^so why did he sleep in a separate room?
I never knew^

Chewbacca's right - the clue's in the lyrics: "hoping soon that you'll walk back through that door and love me like you tried before"

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gillybob Fri 03-Aug-18 09:16:04

So he couldn’t......you know ? hmm

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grandtanteJE65 Fri 03-Aug-18 13:30:57

I thought "wedding band" was American usage ,it was in use in England during the Civil war as the Puritans forbade the giving and receiving of a wedding band, so I assumed the Pilgrim Fathers took the expression with them, where British English replaced it at some point with "wedding ring".

All Americanisms creeping into English annoy me intensely, I may say.

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Wheniwasyourage Fri 03-Aug-18 14:48:46

Witzend, I am another grumpy old hag who doesn't understand why a ring should become a band.

We had a rather good ceilidh band for DD's wedding, which was certainly not a cause for being grumpy.

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Chewbacca Fri 03-Aug-18 17:58:25

Think so gillybob. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

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Grammaretto Mon 13-Aug-18 15:20:03

Those pilgrim fathers took a number of things over with them. Now it's time to send them back perhaps.
Wedding band is a ceilidh band in my book though autocorrect is desperate for me to write ceiling band.
I wore a wedding ring at one time but it's too small now and anyway I don't wear rings.

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