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'Gongoozler' doesn't exist


QCat

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According to the BBC R4 Website that is. Naturally Gongoozler isn't a word used inside the BBC bubble, so their researcher (who probably looks like a 12 year old in a suit) hasn't heard of it and it's on their list of words that are no longer used for some programme or other.

 

I do despair of 'research' that can be summed up as 'what I got off Wikipedia'!!! Even 30 seconds effort on Google would have found the word used on this forum!

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I heard a guy on Radio (must have been 4) talking about words that had fallen out of use. He said Gongoozle used to be in common use meaning to look. He also said he had said it had fallen out of use on one programme only to be inundated by calls and emails telling him it was alive and well on the cut.

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Here's an article from another BBC employee, which an old friend who lives in Sydney spotted recently. It seems to be about right on Gongoozle ...

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2xL1gH6FcyCtYH2NM6zYhTK/lost-for-words-14-expressions-that-have-vanished

 

Looks like a river - anyone recognize it?

Edited by Scholar Gypsy
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Here's an article from another BBC employee, which an old friend who lives in Sydney spotted recently. It seems to be about right on Gongoozle ...

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2xL1gH6FcyCtYH2NM6zYhTK/lost-for-words-14-expressions-that-have-vanished

 

Looks like a river - anyone recognize it?

That seems to be the programme I heard and he definitely said he had been told in no uncertain terms Gongoozle was still being used.

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Went to bed after original post and woken up less grumpy :-)

 

Point I was trying to make is that BBC have presented as fact something which they have researched poorly (which as we have to pay for the BBC and it's held up as a figure of excellence I find irritating), but much more importantly that must make us a sub-culture with our own language... So does that mean boaters are 'protected' and we can't be picked on?

 

(The programme itself I didn't catch, it's the website that is out of touch... I'm not technically savvy enough for working links :-()

Edited by QCat
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I have definitely heard it used. But I see your point about newspaper only terms. I'm pretty sure I've never heard 'fracas' in normal conversation for example!

Not sure about "Phew! What a scorcher!" either. Or, for that matter, "blaze" as applied to a building catching fire: "Three injured in factory blaze". Most people call it a fire. Oh, and how many of us call ourselves "Britons", as the papers are fond of doing? It makes us sound as if we're wearing woad.

Edited by Athy
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When I used to work properly my electronics technician used "Gongoozler" extensively, mostly to refer to engineers standing round watching him work! This was 10 or 15 years ago. He had heard the word somewhere and thinking it was such a great word decided to use it lots. He had no great canal connection apart from possibly a bit of towpath cycling, but was (and still is) a fan of all sports. My guess is that he first heard it on a sporting TV program, possibly even Baseball or American football????? It does sound like an American word????

 

................Dave

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Yes, near the Marina.

 

 

Isn't everywhere in Braunston the Gongoozler might be moored 'near the marina'?

 

Anyway, I call a Point of Order! It's called "The Gongoozlers Rest", (with missing apostrophe IIRC).

 

 

 

(Edit to get spelling of 'gongoozler' right!)

Edited by Mike the Boilerman
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The Gongoozlers's Rest cafe boat is still trading in Braunston and is excellent.

 

It was missing over last winter whilst maintenance work was carried out at Clifton.

 

The cafe business was started by John Brightman and Jenny Tunningly in Worksop in the 1990's.

 

They moved the business to Braunston in 2000 at the request of BW, and it has traded there ever since, although John and Jenny retired about five years ago, and Avril and her excellent team took over.

 

It is well worth a visit.

 

Rog

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