 Oh and a sod is a clod.
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 and there is still tents that have a sod cloth! :)
Nice to see a Dartmoor article. And the same as elaine Dartmoor is too my local stomping ground, and i know all the parts he refers to in his article.
Dartmoor is a truely historical place which today may be a place of interest and tourism to the masses today was once a place of employment and shear survival for soo many people. It is all around and when looked closely mans impact is clearly seen. and evidence of his existance has made a indelible mark on the landscape.
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HA: I'm not so sure why it's used in reports either. It's not as common these days as it was in some of the older reports.
But, as somebody else has said, it's all about context I suppose.
And while were (kind of) on the subject of 'harmless' words and their more serious origins/undertones/uses, I seem to remember reading that the word 'berk' (much used by my father to address me in my youth) effectively means the 'c' word, as it's supposedly a shortened version of the rhyming slang 'Berkeley Hunt'.
Anyway, that's not much use as feedback on the article! Sorry!
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 Fiddlesticks.....means penises.
Just to stay on the new topic.
I was always taught that a sod was a piece of earth. Like a clod.
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 Another odd comment in the article was that all the routes at its core involves crossing the moor rather than bagging the peaks.
The old tracks are ancient paths which provided the safest way to travel from a to b and therefore avoid the peaks, bogs and any other hindrance. A sailor who needed to travel from the South to the North coast wouldn’t care much for bagging peaks on the way - just the easiest and quickest route to follow. Andy Stothert does seem to have a one track mind:)
Row, thanks, it was getting lonely on this thread.
But back to the other stuff. Are there any exceptions or are all swear words related to sexual activity or body parts and getting rid of body waste?
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Other swear words tend to be blasphemous.
Bloody and blinking being two of them.
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 The offensiveness of words is usually time- and culture-specific. For instance, I believe there used to be a 'Gropec**t Lane' in London, it was the prostitutes' equivalent of 'Butcher Row' - as society got more genteel such streetnames were changed. Racist words now regarded as extremely offensive would have offended only those they were aimed at 100 years ago. Expressions such as 'Blimey' and 'Hell' were formerly regarded as being much more offensive than now - as with all things linguistic this is a dynamic process.
Can anyone confirm if 'Gordon Bennett' comes from the early 20th century motor races?
I'd like to read this article - I like Dartmoor - but it's SO hard to find TGO in the shops...
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Back to the original thread... I've only just read this south-west feature - it's nicely written - but how could the wonderful Quantocks be summarised in one paragraph?! (What about the new Coleridge Way for example?) And the Brendon Hills more or less dismissed?! (Great wooded valleys well off the beaten track). A bit more research needed next time!
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What a pity Elaine's original thread was hijacked by with those with sensitive natures. And thank you for your contribution Mr Tubby, I'm sure Andy Stothert would argue that it's virtually impossible to cover every area in depth and I guess he would have been criticised if he had made no mention of the Brendon Hills or the Quantocks.
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"What a pity Elaine's original thread was hijacked by with those with sensitive natures"
What, am I supposed to apologise, Cameron?
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You did say sorry at the end of your previous post Michael:)
It would have been nice to get a bit of discussion going on the South West England article but you never know how a thread will go and this one did indeed go off at a tangent. I don’t remember seeing Andy Stothert post on this forum but it would be interesting to know if he ever works out what he was missing on Dartmoor. I hate to think of anyone coming to Dartmoor and going away feeling they’ve missed something.
Glad to see he had another article on the South West -” big brassy and beautiful” - September issue. I don’t think he was missing anything this time when he described the effect this stretch of the Lizard coast line had on him. He was obviously impressed and I like the way he gives the reader a real sense of the place without resorting to too many of the usual superlatives. So he waited for “the foulest day imaginable”? Well it couldn’t have been that wet or he would have surely mentioned the slippery serpentinite at Kynance Cove. My only criticism - surely such a classic area of geology warrants a few more words of wisdom on the rocks?
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No need to apologise, Michael, we all have our opinions
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 The B word some people don't think is neccesary has even got on to OM (not just in the forums):
"Recover When You're Buggered...
By The Butcher's Dog"
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