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They are fair game for swots, letter-writers, anoraks and so on.
Anoraks? I thought that's what the British call ski jackets. Does it have another derogatory meaning?
I think it might have come from the trainspotting community, people (usually men) who hang around stations collecting lists of train serial numbers. In our climate, they often have to dress to combat the weather, so might wear 'anoraks' (not a particularly fashionable item).
BTW, do other countries have 'trainspotters'?
Ski jackets are (usually) stylish, fashionable, brightly coloured, have lots of velcro fastenings and toggles, made of Gore-Tex and able to keep you warm (and looking cool) in the Alps..
An anorak is usually much cheaper, plain old bit of nylon with a zip and a hood. You often get wetter inside the anorak as your sweat can't get out through a hi-tech 'breatheable' membrane, but condenses inside the anorak.
It's quite complicated keeping up with all the fashion ins and outs, especially when I live in Spain now. No doubt anoraks will return to be high fashion items sometime in the not too distant future...
From Word Origins, John Ayto:
This was originally a word in the Inuit language of Greenland: annoraaq. It came into English in the 1920s, by way of Danish. At first it was used only to refer to the sort of garments worn by Eskimos, but by the 1930s it was being applied to a waterproof hooded coat made in imitation of these. In Britain, such jackets came to be associated with the sort of socially inept obsessives who stereotypically pursue such hobbies as train-spotting and computer-gaming, and by the early 1980s the term 'anorak' was being contemptuously applied to them.
Think it's sad standing in train stations collecting locomotive serial numbers? At my school in England in the 1980s, there were bus spotters who had the ambition of riding every single route in the city as well as collecting the license number of every single bus.
They won;t even bend the rules by a fraction because it is more than their job's worth.
I once had a neighbour who on almost every occasion he saw me at the front door, would insist on telling stuff I didn't want to know, or care a toss about. It was as if he was obsessed with everything, like a compulsive. He would stand watching me sweep the step and say "your not brushing it the right way" or he would tell me about my rubbish, like how long it took to decompose. He was a supervisor for some security firm, so I guess that says it all.
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Anoraks?
I am just starting a book I found at the library. It is historical fiction and in the author's note he mentions various kinds of anachronisms in the book.They are fair game for swots, letter-writers, anoraks and so on.
Anoraks? I thought that's what the British call ski jackets. Does it have another derogatory meaning?
2
Yes, it's used as a pejorative term for anyone who has a very deep knowledge about a particular subject, often something that is 'out of the ordinary' or technical. It's almost synonymous with 'geeky', but possibly a bit more disparaging (I'm talking from a UK English perspective).I think it might have come from the trainspotting community, people (usually men) who hang around stations collecting lists of train serial numbers. In our climate, they often have to dress to combat the weather, so might wear 'anoraks' (not a particularly fashionable item).
BTW, do other countries have 'trainspotters'?
3
Another point of detail, pretty much everybody in the UK will be able to tell the difference between a ski-jacket and an anorak.Ski jackets are (usually) stylish, fashionable, brightly coloured, have lots of velcro fastenings and toggles, made of Gore-Tex and able to keep you warm (and looking cool) in the Alps..
An anorak is usually much cheaper, plain old bit of nylon with a zip and a hood. You often get wetter inside the anorak as your sweat can't get out through a hi-tech 'breatheable' membrane, but condenses inside the anorak.
It's quite complicated keeping up with all the fashion ins and outs, especially when I live in Spain now. No doubt anoraks will return to be high fashion items sometime in the not too distant future...
5
Probably the best American English equivalent for anorak is windbreaker. Like this or this. (But windbreaker can include other kinds of jackets.)From Word Origins, John Ayto:
This was originally a word in the Inuit language of Greenland: annoraaq. It came into English in the 1920s, by way of Danish. At first it was used only to refer to the sort of garments worn by Eskimos, but by the 1930s it was being applied to a waterproof hooded coat made in imitation of these. In Britain, such jackets came to be associated with the sort of socially inept obsessives who stereotypically pursue such hobbies as train-spotting and computer-gaming, and by the early 1980s the term 'anorak' was being contemptuously applied to them.
7
Anorak is indeed derogatory.Think it's sad standing in train stations collecting locomotive serial numbers? At my school in England in the 1980s, there were bus spotters who had the ambition of riding every single route in the city as well as collecting the license number of every single bus.
9
strange, I haven't seen any anoraks / trainspotters for a long time, only the other month going through Alsager on the Westcoast mainline I never saw any. Stations such as this and Crewe were meeting places for them, they use to be out in all weathers, sometimes shin deep in snow on remote platforms, maybe they've moved on to LPTTGS Lol.11
11, that sounds more like a "work to rule", action designed to pressure management. A jobsworth is someone who is so totally inflexible in dealing with the public that they annoy the people they are supposed to be helping.They won;t even bend the rules by a fraction because it is more than their job's worth.
12
Jobsworths know the ins and outs of a cats arse and follow rules above and beyond their call, they constantly harp on about their position / job status and qualification ( which usually amounts to nothing more than a couple of O levels). they find it difficult to or cannot socially interact in the mainstream. So am sorry I think they do fall into the category of anoraks.I once had a neighbour who on almost every occasion he saw me at the front door, would insist on telling stuff I didn't want to know, or care a toss about. It was as if he was obsessed with everything, like a compulsive. He would stand watching me sweep the step and say "your not brushing it the right way" or he would tell me about my rubbish, like how long it took to decompose. He was a supervisor for some security firm, so I guess that says it all.
