Children are sweet.

[changeling]

So, I'm editing today, right? And I have my big mo-fo of a dictionary (Macquarie Dictionary, fourth edition) on the table beside me. It's 1676 pages long, hardback, and heavier than Nicole Richie (ooh, unexpected almost-current event joke). It's one of the two "approved" dictionaries for Australian use (the other being the OED). The Macquarie prides itself of being "by Australians, for Australians", and including Australian slang, sayings and people. Most of my (Australian) friends who are editors eschew it for its preference of American spellings over British*.

While looking up "bulimia" for the style sheet, I came across the word "bullrush", which referred me to British bulldog, a game I had played as a child. Always inquisitive about the definitions of others, I flicked back (well, turned the large and thin pages carefully). This is the definition:

British bulldog Pronunciation guide I can't be bothered looking up the ASCII for noun a children's game in which a group of children run repeatedly through an area guarded by the other children, those who are caught each time joining forces with their catchers [ed: why not use "captors"? Much better term. More dramatic] until only one child remains uncaught and is the victor. [stupid run-on sentence theirs]

Well, excuse me, but that is not the British bulldog I played. That sounds more like Octopus (though in that game everyone who is "it" joins hands rather than merely forces and forms a wall across the playing area). In British bulldog, players attempt to run from one side of the field to the other, with the "it" players being in the middle. When a player is caught, s/he has to be physically subdued to the ground with tripping, violence or wrestling, and afterwards joins the "it" players. It was generally banned in schools due to its brutality.

Don't sanitise my childhood games.

---

* Such as -ize rather than -ise, and giving equal weighting to colour and color, the latter of which is certainly not reflected in, say, Australian media.

---

Still to come:
A post on naughty bits.

Comments

[watersusurrus.livejournal.com]

Damn straight!

[chennpug.livejournal.com]

Yay naughty bits!

That sounds along the same lines as Red Rover, but much less orderly and much more fun.

[buhfly.livejournal.com]

!!! *squishes* You played Red Rover, too? I didn't like it, I got hurt too much.

[chennpug.livejournal.com]

I did, but it DID hurt. After not very long none of the kids were allowed to play it at school or at church or any sponsored activities where they could be held responsible for shoulders knocked out of joint or broken arms.

[jolly-oddness.livejournal.com]

We played the rougher version during lunch, when it was played as part of a school activity, we played the sanitised version. Tssk, worrisome teachers.

*awaits naughty bits*

I love your icon so so much.

[delirieuse.livejournal.com]

I'd never played the sanitised version!

Thank you! Steph made this one for me.

[jolly-oddness.livejournal.com]

AND! I've never heard it called 'British bulldog' before. It was always bullrush.

[delirieuse.livejournal.com]

There are different regional names for it.

[buhfly.livejournal.com]

We had a similar game called Red Rover when I was a kid.... Sort of their version of British Bulldog, EXCEPT with your version of British Bulldog's violence. Too many broken arms and concussions at my school and so it was strictly banned.

"Red Rover, Red Rover, send [name] right over."

[delirieuse.livejournal.com]

I've heard the rhyme. With British Bulldog, it was more of a rush of everyone going at once, rather than one person being tackled at a time.

Red Rover's another regional name for it in Australia. :)

Dictionaries

[subtle-eye.livejournal.com]

Yeah, all hail the ACOD.

My ex used to work for the Australian National Dictionary Center at the ANU, where
the ACOD and other local Oxford publications were compiled. Oxford had a policy of
"descriptive, not prescriptive" when it came to inclusion in the dictionary.
Two citations in Australian publications was the requirement.

That reminds me, I saw shambolic in The Age Business section the other day.
Halfway there! :)

[pezzae.livejournal.com]

Huh. We played the nice version at school, even at lunch, so I was really confused when it was banned in a territory-wide edict. I guess other people were playing the brutal version...