Reading through an article on Bath in Homes and Antiques this weekend, a phrase caught my eye. It was along the lines of "Go to the Thermae Bath Spa to gen up on life in Roman Bath." Learning English being a long and slow process, I'd never encountered "to gen up on something" as a phrase before. From context it was obvious, a synonym for the (North?) American "to bone up on something".
I asked C. about it. "You'd never use 'to bone up' in British", he said, quite reasonably. His mother disagreed, suggesting too that they don't mean the same thing. She thought that "to gen up" involves gathering general information on something. "Boning up" involves a more detailed study of something, becoming a bit more of a an expert on a particular topic.
So, in honor of International Post-a-Poll Day (singlehandedly declared by
easterbunny), here is a poll on the subject.
And do they have different meanings, for those of you familiar with both phrases?
I asked C. about it. "You'd never use 'to bone up' in British", he said, quite reasonably. His mother disagreed, suggesting too that they don't mean the same thing. She thought that "to gen up" involves gathering general information on something. "Boning up" involves a more detailed study of something, becoming a bit more of a an expert on a particular topic.
So, in honor of International Post-a-Poll Day (singlehandedly declared by
easterbunny), here is a poll on the subject.To gen up?
I'm British, and "to gen up" is a normal phrase for me.
19(27.9%)
I'm British, and "to gen up" is NOT a normal phrase for me.
11(16.2%)
I'm not British, and "to gen up" is a normal phrase for me.
0(0.0%)
I'm not British, and "to gen up" is NOT a normal phrase for me.
38(55.9%)
To bone up?
I'm British, and "to bone up" is a normal phrase for me.
14(20.6%)
I'm British, and "to bone up" is NOT a normal phrase for me.
16(23.5%)
I'm not British, and "to bone up" is a normal phrase for me.
29(42.6%)
I'm not British, and "to bone up" is NOT a normal phrase for me.
9(13.2%)
And do they have different meanings, for those of you familiar with both phrases?
Profile
- owlfish
- S. Worthen
- S. Worthen
Comments
You pay close attention!
Natural enough. It's originally military slang. "gen' being short for 'intelligence'.
"To Bone Up" - not since I did my exams. That's to study something because there will be a test (of some sort).
As opposed to the very similar construction, "to get the gist", where one normally does the deductive acquisition of knowledge internally.
I suppose it comes down to whether you visit the spa to finding out about Roman Bath or whether you find out about Roman Bath while visiting the spa.
I love your language polls/posts ;-)
Hmm. Looking through results so far, every single Brit who said they do NOT think of "gen up" as a normal phrase are people in their teens through to thirties who currently live in the greater London area. Off the top of my head, I can't tell you if they're all originally from the south-east or not, but I don't know that any of them are, say, northerners. (I don't know, if I ever knew, where in the UK you're from, but you spent at least some time in the south if you went to Cambridge.)
And yes, we do use 'get the gen on', but it is old-fashioned and not used so much these days, as it is old military slang. I've just read far too many old books for it not to be standard usage for me.
As far as 'have got' vs 'have' - both are in common use, but as American slang infiltrates, the latter is becoming more common.
In American, "having" something isn't slang at all. It's perfectly formal speech. In fact, I'd say that "have got" sounds slangy and informal to my ears.
'Swot up' is more familiar to me, but to me both 'swot up' and 'bone up' suggest intensive, detailed study, such as one might do before an exam. I wouldn't use them to describe absorbing information in a leisurely manner. I don't hear 'gen up' enough to know whether it's the right phrase to use in that context, though.
I'm originally from the Midlands and have spent the last few years in the south-west and south-east, if that helps.