26.2.08

Etymology

I was listening to the Proclaimers "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" and I heard a word that I didn't recognize. I assumed I had misheard the word and so I looked up the lyrics. Here's the verse and more specifically the couplet I'm referring to:
And if I haver yeah I know I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be the man who's havering to you

Thoroughly confused I headed over to dictionary.com to find out what haver means. The first definition says that haver means to equivocate or to vacillate. Given the context of the song the definition didn't make sense, so I scrolled down. After the Hebrew definition (friend; comrade; companion) which I knew couldn't be the correct one, I found the definition of haver, according to Scottish slang. (You see, the Proclaimers are two Scottish brothers, so it would make sense that they would use Scottish slang.)
Haver: To maunder; to talk foolishly; to chatter
So there you have it. This is what I do when I'm bored; look up strange words in songs that I'm listening to.

On a completely different note, in English class today we were discussing our research topics. Of course mine center around British culture and I happen to know that the Brits are absolute nutters for soccer and so one of my classmates asked me if I was British. I politely replied no, just somewhat obsessed. :)

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