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Banff
1. adj. Pertaining to, or descriptive of, that kind of facial expression which is impossible to achieve except when having a passport photograph taken.
2. n. A city in Scotland.
3. n. A city in Alberta, Canada.
I'm alternately amused and annoyed at the number of place names that turn out to have come from "first editions" in the United Kingdom. Abilene (as in Texas) is among these as well. A goodly number of them I knew of already, but I'm learning more, and more utterly obscure ones, not by reading an atlas, but by reading The Meaning of Liff by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd.
For those not in the know, the book was based on the concept that there are many odd things and feelings with which we are all familiar, but have no specific words for. So they set about applying place-names from the UK and Ireland to these odd things and feelings, and applying odd things and feelings to appropriate place-names. (The meaning of Liff, of course, is "A book, the contents of which are totally belied by its cover. For instance, any book the dust jacket of which bears the words 'This book will change your life.' " I believe that the original printings of the book had just such words on the dust jacket, making this definition rather more amusing.)
I mean, Paris, sure. London, sure. O, the vaingloriousness of Texas (again?) and Ontario! Among other places, I'm sure.
But Banff??
1. adj. Pertaining to, or descriptive of, that kind of facial expression which is impossible to achieve except when having a passport photograph taken.
2. n. A city in Scotland.
3. n. A city in Alberta, Canada.
I'm alternately amused and annoyed at the number of place names that turn out to have come from "first editions" in the United Kingdom. Abilene (as in Texas) is among these as well. A goodly number of them I knew of already, but I'm learning more, and more utterly obscure ones, not by reading an atlas, but by reading The Meaning of Liff by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd.
For those not in the know, the book was based on the concept that there are many odd things and feelings with which we are all familiar, but have no specific words for. So they set about applying place-names from the UK and Ireland to these odd things and feelings, and applying odd things and feelings to appropriate place-names. (The meaning of Liff, of course, is "A book, the contents of which are totally belied by its cover. For instance, any book the dust jacket of which bears the words 'This book will change your life.' " I believe that the original printings of the book had just such words on the dust jacket, making this definition rather more amusing.)
I mean, Paris, sure. London, sure. O, the vaingloriousness of Texas (again?) and Ontario! Among other places, I'm sure.
But Banff??