Thursday 26 November 2009

Picture Dictionary: Tackies


In the words of Henry Higgins, “One common language I'm afraid we'll never get.” Though unlike Henry, I’m not really bothered by this. I like the fact that English spoken in Ireland is different from English spoken in the US, in England and, as I’m learning now, in South Africa. I’ve been collecting choice words and phrases to share with you in a new feature – the picture dictionary.

We’ll start off with an easy one.

Tackies [tak-eez]

-noun

Footwear worn for sport and leisure; known in other countries as runners (Ireland), trainers (Great Britain), sneakers (USA).

3 comments:

  1. That's a gorgeous photo.
    My English boyfriend finds the term 'runners' really irritating for some reason. So much so that I now wear them as often as possible just to rile him.

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  2. Why thank you!
    And for the record, I hate the word 'trainers' - 'runners' is a much better description. So keep up with the good work.

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  3. In my young days when the tdl was a power in the land they were called gutties (SOED has no record of the word) which may explain why they were disliked by them and me!

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