Re: another idiom in a song
I've no idea what skippers are - probably some sort of food. 'Where' seems to be a mistranslation of were.
b
Re: another idiom in a song
They appear to be something as undesirable as bugs - The New England farmer - Thomas Greene Fessenden - Google Books
If they were nine feet deep, they had bored themselves well into the meat!
Re: another idiom in a song
Quote:
Originally Posted by
BobK
I've no idea what skippers are - probably some sort of food. 'Where' seems to be a mistranslation of were.
b
Oops. My bad. this is a typo. You should read were, not where.
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cmic
Re: another idiom in a song
Quote:
Originally Posted by
5jj
They appear to be something as undesirable as bugs -
If they were nine feet deep, they had bored themselves well into the meat!
How come you find these words in an obscure book? Anyway. This is what I suspected: skippers (or skeppers) are worms or something like this. The next verse is about green flies, which proves, once again, that the meat is not... very fresh
Thanks for your answer.
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cmic
Re: another idiom in a song
Quote:
Originally Posted by
cmic
How come you find these words in an obscure book?
One answer could be that I am extremely well read.
The other could be that Google is not perfect, but it's pretty useful most of the time..
Re: another idiom in a song
I could only guess what "skeppers" (i.e., skippers) were -- I assumed they were some sort of insect. And I got my answer from a University of Kentucky Web page that identifies skippers as the larval stages of small flies.
They get their name from the way they move -- and they're scavengers that consume organic wastes.
So ... "skeppers in the meat ... nine foot deep" describes a very unsanitary condition of the food.