T

Taken to the Cleaners
If you are taken to the cleaners, you are ruined, you lose all your money. In past centuries, you might have been ‘cleaned out’, i.e. stripped of everything of value, as a result of gambling or dishonest practice. This idiom was cleverly exploited in an advertisement for domestic cleaners. Its jingle said: “Prices that won’t take you to the cleaners”. (Flavell & Flavell 3 2000: 54)

Tally
Tallies were responsible for the fire which burnt down the House of Commons. How come? And what is a tally in the first place? It is basically a piece of wood. In the Middle Ages (and long after that) they were used to settle accounts. A sum of money was cut into the tally, then the tally was split into two and one of the two was given to whoever had made the payment, as a kind of receipt. If the two pieces matched, it meant that you had paid the sum. The other piece was kept by whoever had received the money. In many instances this was the ‘government’, the Treasury. When this method was given up in the 18th century, the huge amount of tallies that the state still had was used as fuel to heat the Houses of Parliament, until one day so many of them were crammed into the furnaces that they overheated and the building caught fire. That was the end of (most of) the old building and the beginning of the building, including Big Ben, as we know it now. The old use of tally has given rise to the modern use of tally in the sense of correspond: ‘Luckily for you, his story tallies with yours’. Tally is one the numberless English words which derive from Latin, and the same Latin word, talea, has also given rise to the word tailor. (Flavell & Flavell 2005: 36-7)

Tank
Why is a tank both a water container and a military vehicle? The answer is warfare. The production of tanks in World War I was a highly secretive affair, and a code words was deemed necessary. So the vehicles were developed at engineering works in Lincoln under the cover of an order for water tanks, and the vehicles were subsequently shipped to the front in crates marked Tanks. (Flavell & Flavell 3 2005: 278) It was actually Churchill who had a say in this. He rejected a suggestion made by Ernest Swinton, an officer. Swinton wanted to produce and ship the “landships”, as they were internally known, under the label of Water Carriers for Russia. Chuchill did not like the idea that these would be abbreviated as WC. He accepted the second suggestion, according to which they were to come under the label of Water Tanks for Russia (Russia at the time was fighting on the side of the allies). Gradually for Russia was dropped, as the landships in the end went, not to the Eastern but to the Western front. And finally water was dropped as well. And that left us with tanks. (Forsyth 2016: 135-137)

Taper
A taper is a thin candle. Like paper, the word comes from papyrus. This plant could do much more than from the basis for early paper. Parts of it could be used to make candle-sticks, and that is what eventually led to the word taper. (Crystal 2005: 81)

Tawdry
This word is said to have quite a convoluted history. The story goes that a fair was held in England in honour of St. Audrey annually on 17 October. Audrey was the simplified form of Etheldreda (small wonder they needed a simplified form), and at this fair various kinds of cheap knickknacks were sold, along with a necklace called St. Audrey’s lace. In the course of time, this had become tawdry lace, and eventually tawdry came to stand for anything cheap and gaudy that might be found at such a fair or elsewhere.

Tea (1)
Tea comes from China. And with the product came the word. It came to the major languages of Europe and the Middle East through Dutch or Portuguese, the languages of the main trading nations in the far east at that time. The Dutch traders had their main contacts where the Amoy dialect was spoken, and in these areas the word for ‘tea’ was te. The Portuguese traders travelled via Macao, where the Cantonese dialect was spoken. There the word for ‘tea’ was cha. All those areas which got their tea from the Portuguese (usually overland) use forms such as chai, all those areas which got their word from the Dutch (usually by sea) use forms such as tea. Thus we have Greek tsai, Russian chai, Turkish çay, Arabic shay, Persian cha vs. English tea, French thé, Spanish té, German Tee. (Bybee 2015: 191-2) Incidentally, English has both words, tea being the ordinary word, char being its colloquial equivalent. But both words are Chinese, why are they so different? This is to do with the Chinese language and its characteristics. The dialects of Chinese are so different from each other that they might as well be considered different languages (if it wasn’t for the fact that the Chinese do not consider them to be different languages). They are probably much more different from each other – if you can measure the degree of difference – than, say, German and Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese, or Danish and Norwegian. There is, however, a second unifying force, and that is the writing system. A speaker of one Chinese dialect will use the same sign to represent a word as a speaker of another dialect, although he will pronounce it quite differently.

Tea (2)
“He’s having his tea”, was my landlady’s reply when I asked to see her husband. It was six o’clock in the afternoon, and, out of the corner of my eye, I could see him sitting in front of a steaming plate of bangers and mashed. And he wasn’t having any tea at all. So far, my idea of tea had been: four o’clock, cakes, sandwiches and – tea. But obviously, there’s more to it. What the experts have to say (cf. Gramley/Pätzold 1992: 38) is this: we must distinguish between U (i.e. what the upper say) and non-U (i.e. what the upper classes do not say). My idea of tea corresponded to U, my landlady’s idea of tea corresponded to non-U.

Teacup
What is a teacup? Is it a cup for tea, or is it a cup of tea, i.e. is it mainly a cup (which may of may not contain tea) or is it mainly tea (which just happens to be in a cup)? Clearly, in British English only the first meaning is possible. You could not ask someone who is visiting whether they would like a teacup, at least not without causing some confusion. The reason for this is that the underlying idea in this kind of compounds (noun + noun) is that noun 2 is something for noun 1. In Indian English (cf. Trudgill/Hannah 4 2002: 131), this idea is extended to other constructions, including those with of: a chalk – piece is a ‘piece of chalk’, a key-bunch is a ‘bunch of keys’. (Note the surprising similarity with German). The meaning in these cases is perfectly transparent, but in other cases it may not be: is a fish tin a ‘tin containing fish’ or a ‘tin for fish’, is a water bottle a ‘bottle containing water’ of a ‘bottle for water’? And where does that leave our teacup ?

Tendencies
Rather practically, all the consonants in tendencies are alveolars, and it contains all English alveolars except /l/.

Thank you
More complicated than it looks, although it is one of the first words one picks up as a learner of English. The pronunciation is quite difficult, at least for a German learner. The dental fricative, i.e. what we call “th”, does not exist in German, and there is no corresponding vowel in German. This is often not noticed, and therefore more difficult than “th”, because it is less obvious. Then you have to learn how the word relates to others such as Thanks , Thank you very much , Thank you so much , Ta or Cheers. And then you have to learn when it is used. It is used more frequently and in different places than in German. Buying a ticket on an English bus is said to involve four thank-yous, only one of which really means ‘Thank you’. Rather interestingly, this formal ritual sometimes amazes Americans, who could run through the whole transactions with hardly a single “Thank you” being exchanged (cf. Gramley/Pätzold 1992: 59).

Thank you for your understanding
One frequently sees signs with messages such as „We thank you for your understanding“ or „We apologize for any inconvenience“ in public these days, issued by  organisations or companies. The addressee is addressed as you (not, for example, as passengers or clients). Although the speech act is addressed to a mass audience (e.g. all the passengers on a train), you is here used, picking up a standard ploy used in advertising, to seemingly address individuals, with you being understood in the singular. It definitely personalises the addressee. The utterances also personalise the speaker. They refer to themselves as we. It does not become quite clear who we is. It is purposely vague. A notable semantic feature of these utterances is that, whereas people are usually thanked for what they have done, in this case they are thanked for something they have not yet done but which is hoped they will do. This proliferation of this habit of thanking and apologising in public is just one example of the personalisation of public discourse, of the attempt to make public language sound more like ordinary conversation, of the conversationalization of public language. (cf. Fairclough, Norman: „Language, Reality and Power“, in: Culpeper 2009: 521-2)

That
That is a very versatile word. It can be a conjunction (“They know that…”), a demonstrative pronoun (“That book over there”) or a relative pronoun (“The girl that won the prize”). “Dan thinks that that book that you bought is boring” contains all three. (Davis 2004: 145). Admittedly, this is not a very probable English sentence. Usually you would drop the conjunction or the relative pronoun or both, and you could replace the demonstrative pronoun by an article, thus leaving not a single that.

The

The seemingly simple word the is actually ambiguous. It can be read generically or specifically. This can be demonstrated by these utterances: 1) “The boa constrictor is a species of large, heavy-bodied snake”. 2): “Don’t worry about those reptiles over there. They’re sedated. But even when sedated, the boa constrictor is very dangerous. (Siewierska, Anna: “Semantics”, in: Culpeper 2009: 191)

The exception proves the rule

This saying, which originated in the 1500s, today seems to suggest that, if you find an exception, this does not do any harm to the rule, it does not invalidate it. This, however, does not seem to be the original meaning: prove did not mean ‘confirm’ but rather ‘test’, closer to modern probe than to prove. Coming to think of it, this makes much more sense. Why should an exception confirm a rule? It rather questions it. And that was meant. If you find an exception, the rules needs testing. It needs to be checked.  (Ammer 2006; 129)

Theatre
It is a well-known fact that English has many loanwords from French. But it also has many loanwords from Latin. As Latin and French are related languages, it is sometimes impossible to tell which of the two a word comes from. This is the case with theatre, and it represents dozens of examples which present the same problem, such as expectant, signification or impression ( Crystal 2005: 155).

There’s something I wanted to ask you
Why the Past Tense? The speaker might as well have said, “There’s something I want to ask you”, but with a difference. The Past Tense seems more tentative and less obtrusive. It puts greater distance between the speaker and his request, it softens the request by making it less immediate. This is one of the uses where the Past Tense does not really refer to the past. The Past Tense seems to weave remoteness into language, not only concerning time, but also concerning psychological distance. And also concerning reality: “If I had the time I’d write” is more remote from realisation than “If I have the time, I’ll write” (adapted from Gramley/Pätzold 1992: 144)

There you are
The phrase “There you are” has actually two different meanings (cf. Davis 2004: 72-3). It can be used

(1) as a polite phrase when we hand something to somebody, meaning something like “This is four you.”

(2) to suggest that what somebody has just said confirms your own opinion on the subject, meaning something like “That proves what I said.”

The two phrases can be distinguished only by intonation

(1) a high unstressed first syllable, a lower unstressed second syllable, with rising pitch in the third syllable (nucleus).

(2) a low unstressed first syllable, a higher unstressed second syllable, with the third syllable (nucleus) rising even higher.

They

“The process now seems irreversible.” That is what Fowler’s manual in one of its later editions has to say about generic they as a singular pronoun. And it has long been included in dictionaries as Standard English. Not everyone is happy with this. The most frequent objection is that a word cannot be singular and plural at the same time.  However, this argument overlooks that there is a neighbouring word which is singular and plural at the same time with no one objecting to it: you. (O’Conner 2010: 143)

Think
What is usually called , i.e. the sound at the beginning of think, is a difficult sound for foreign learners whose languages do not include this sound. It is not, however, pronounced by all native speakers. In certain varieties of English, think may sound like tink, in others it may sound like fink. If you put your lower lip behind your teeth, you will realize that fink is no so different from think as it may seem. This is occasionally heard in Australia and New Zealand , the other variety is often heard in Ireland (Bauer 2002: 109). This may be the case because there is no in Irish Gaelic. It is curious to realize that both versions, although they deviate from the standard, do have the distinction between voiced and voiceless, like the standard. Thus, if think sounds like tink , this will sound like dis. This shows that to call the sound may be quite convenient, but also quite wrong. What we call is two different sounds, a voiced and voiceless one, and the difference between them is quite as big as the difference between /p/ and /b/. But as both are represented in the same way in spelling, we may think there is no difference. And spelling is misleading in another way as well. Although there are two letters, there is, of course, only one sound. Technically speaking, what we call is a dental fricative, with a voiced and a voiceless variety, / D / and / T / respectively.

Thompson
This family name originally meant that someone was the son of Tom: Tom + son, and it is often spelt Thomson. Then how did the  /p/ get into Thompson? When you pronounce the name quickly, you will often, without realising it, insert a /p/. Probably this facilitates the transition form /m/ to /s/. This process, known as epenthesis, was apparently so common that was included in the spelling. A similar case is that of Sampson. (Davis 2004: 141)

Thon

Most of us have never heard of this word. It is a sex-less third person singular pronoun, introduced into English as an alternative to he or she or generic he or they. It made its way into dictionaries but did not catch on, as little as other similar attempts to introduce a neutral pronoun. It has now disappeared from some of the dictionaries which once included it. Is it an English word? (O’Conner 2010: 144)

Thou
This form, although it has practically disappeared from English (i.e. from modern standard English), is important when reading older texts. It is often mispronounced by students. They make it rhyme with so , but it must be pronounced to rhyme with how . Moreover, it is often considered just ‘an earlier form of you’ , which it is not, because it co-existed with you for a long time. And these two were not just exchangeable, but corresponded to du and Sie in modern German, but not the way they are often understood to relate: not thou , but you was the polite form! That is why the Quakers, in their egalitarian spirit, wanted to impose thou as the only form, and keep using it amongst themselves. Actually, this usage offended many. People with high social positions or high pretensions considered it an insult not to be addressed by you (Crystal 2005: 310).

Tidbit

The American spelling of tidbit (for titbit) is often understood as a sign of prudery. However, it is the original spelling, tid meaning ‘special’, a tidbit being the best  that you saved for last. (Murphy 2018: 53-54)

Tide

The old meaning of tide was ‘time’. It later came to designate the rise and fall of the sea. Today, the old meaning is preserved in words like Yule-tide or eventide. It is also preserved in the old saying Time and tide wait for no man. Curiously, the modern meaning works as well for the interpretation of the proverb.  (Bybee 2015: 207)

Till death us do part
This stock phrase from the wedding ceremony is the result of some misunderstanding. The original phrase was “Till death us depart”, depart meaning ‘separate’. As this meaning of depart became obsolete, people could not understand the meaning of the phrase any longer and re-interpreted depart as do part, a process known as folk etymology. Now some people go one step further and regularise the syntax saying “Till death do us part”.

Trousers
A student, when asked by his teacher if the word trousers was singular or plural, is reported to have answered: “Singular at the top, and plural at the bottom, Sir.” (Ward 2003: 155)

Tuesday
Not all speakers of English pronounce the word in the same way. American speakers will normally drop the /j/ in the first syllable, which most English speakers would probably insert. Then, the vowel of the second syllable could be like the vowel of bit or like the vowel of beat or like the vowel of bai. And finally, non-standard speakers of British English may pronounce it with an affricate at the beginning, like Chewsday, as it were. (adapted from Gramley/Pätzold 1992: 97)

Turkey
There are two birds, not dissimilar but unrelated, the guinea fowl and the turkey, one of which comes from Turkey. This is, of course, the guinea fowl. The turkey comes from America. For some reason, when it was introduced in Europe, it was called turkey cock. Perhaps it was confused with another ‘exotic’ bird, which was already well known and which was called turkey cock or guinea fowl. This bird was called turkey cock because it came from Africa! To be precise, from the parts of Africa which were then under Turkish domination. It was also called guinea fowl because it was brought to Europe from Guinea in West Africa by the Portuguese. In the end, the birds were distinguished from each other, and the name turkey stuck to the one that did not come from Turkey. (Flavell & Flavell 3 2005: 152)

Twee
Twee is a rather ‘cute’ word and one you would not like to be caught using (“Look at that twee little birdie!”). It has its origins in baby talk, as an alteration of sweet, which may be too difficult for babies because of the consonant cluster at the beginning and the stop at the end. Adults do not generally much care for it. It belongs to the realm of daintiness and cloying sentimentality we would rather not be associated with. On the other hand, we all use words which originated in baby talk, such as nanny, dad or buddy .