Thanks Awfully
What does it mean?
What does it mean?
Uriel Please Help
It means essentially thanks a lot, but has a different sort of air to it that's hard to describe. It sounds slightly like a Briticism, and also has a quaint ring to it.
Yes, there are lots of expressions that don't seem to have a sensible meaning, but people just say them anyway. Fashion! Custom! Archaic!
Thanks Awfully
means: Thank you very much!
which you probably knew. So, why Thank - Awfully!
As you know, British people have difficulty sometimes in expressing emotion.
A kind man, gave us a lift from somewhere near Prestwick Airport (Prestwick International Airport) to the Travel Lodge Ayr. We were walking from the railway station - I am not quite sure which railway station. To put it bluntly, we were lost.
The whole point; of staying at the Travel Lodge was to save money. So, to pay for a Taxi would have been a admission of defeat. So how to thank this man, who had gone out of his way to give us a lift, for no apparent reason?
OK, we could have offered him some money - "honorable defeat!"
I don't think I said 'Thanks Awfully!" but I could have. The whole incident was embarrassing and one that I would not want to repeat.
Thanks for saving me from an awful experience!
Does that make sense!
Bye for now
Robin Michael
Thanks Awfully
means: Thank you very much!
which you probably knew. So, why Thank - Awfully!
As you know, British people have difficulty sometimes in expressing emotion.
A kind man, gave us a lift from somewhere near Prestwick Airport (Prestwick International Airport) to the Travel Lodge Ayr. We were walking from the railway station - I am not quite sure which railway station. To put it bluntly, we were lost.
The whole point; of staying at the Travel Lodge was to save money. So, to pay for a Taxi would have been a admission of defeat. So how to thank this man, who had gone out of his way to give us a lift, for no apparent reason?
OK, we could have offered him some money - "honorable defeat!"
I don't think I said 'Thanks Awfully!" but I could have. The whole incident was embarrassing and one that I would not want to repeat.
Thanks for saving me from an awful experience!
Does that make sense!
Bye for now
Robin Michael
***As you know, British people have difficulty sometimes in expressing emotion***
Only sometimes, only sometimes! You'd be surprised how emotional we can really, really get - just take yourself to Hampden Park or Wembley stadium to see us in full flow, and that's just for starters. I am speaking from a Scottish perspecive here, as always.
We may not do the whole hand gesticulation and the hot blooded verbal passion displays of the Latins but we're quite a long way behind the Swedes, for example, in the stiff upper lip league in day to day discourse.
Brits today are not as "restrained" as our grandparents, or even parents, are/were, to be quite honest with you.
Only sometimes, only sometimes! You'd be surprised how emotional we can really, really get - just take yourself to Hampden Park or Wembley stadium to see us in full flow, and that's just for starters. I am speaking from a Scottish perspecive here, as always.
We may not do the whole hand gesticulation and the hot blooded verbal passion displays of the Latins but we're quite a long way behind the Swedes, for example, in the stiff upper lip league in day to day discourse.
Brits today are not as "restrained" as our grandparents, or even parents, are/were, to be quite honest with you.
Thanks Awfully
What does it mean?
Back to the original question
Thanks Awfully! What does it mean?
It does sound a bit strange. Thank you - Awfully!
What is it that people are trying to say?
I think the answer is: "You have been 'too kind' "
"You have been so kind that you make me feel 'awful' "
Your kindness has been such, that it is out of all proportion to what I have done for you, (or - what I would have done for you).
Your kindness, has placed me in your debt.
You have been so kind to me, you have made me feel awful because I will have difficulty in reciprocating your kindness.
I know the logic sounds very convoluted, but it comes from a middle class world of refined gentility, particularly of women, in which friends - measure the friendship they offer and accept, and keep their relationships within regulated bounds. When one person does another person a favour that they will find difficult to repay, they may say as a shorthand - "Thanks Awfully".
It conjures up a rather difficult feeling in which 'one' is both grateful and uncomfortable at being in someone else's debt.
I hope that explanation was helpful !!!!
Damian, I did not say it in the particular example that I gave: "an unexpected lift at Prestwich", (Sorry! Prestwick) because the Good Samaritan was Scottish and had quite a broad accent. So I was a little bit stuck for a suitable expression. In our conversation I explained our predicament. I felt that I should offer him some money, but the reason why we found ourselves in this position was because we were on a tight budget and trying to save money.
He was driving a new Saab. However I am not entirely sure that it was his car. He might even have been associated with customs or airport security. (He said that he had been to the States on several occasions.) So we said - Thank you - and he said that it would not be necessary to give him any money for going out of his way.
If I had said 'Thanks Awfully' it would have accentuated our cultural differences and it would have sounded condescending or patronising or 'false'. It would have struck a blue note!
Bye for now
Robin Michael
What does it mean?
Back to the original question
Thanks Awfully! What does it mean?
It does sound a bit strange. Thank you - Awfully!
What is it that people are trying to say?
I think the answer is: "You have been 'too kind' "
"You have been so kind that you make me feel 'awful' "
Your kindness has been such, that it is out of all proportion to what I have done for you, (or - what I would have done for you).
Your kindness, has placed me in your debt.
You have been so kind to me, you have made me feel awful because I will have difficulty in reciprocating your kindness.
I know the logic sounds very convoluted, but it comes from a middle class world of refined gentility, particularly of women, in which friends - measure the friendship they offer and accept, and keep their relationships within regulated bounds. When one person does another person a favour that they will find difficult to repay, they may say as a shorthand - "Thanks Awfully".
It conjures up a rather difficult feeling in which 'one' is both grateful and uncomfortable at being in someone else's debt.
I hope that explanation was helpful !!!!
Damian, I did not say it in the particular example that I gave: "an unexpected lift at Prestwich", (Sorry! Prestwick) because the Good Samaritan was Scottish and had quite a broad accent. So I was a little bit stuck for a suitable expression. In our conversation I explained our predicament. I felt that I should offer him some money, but the reason why we found ourselves in this position was because we were on a tight budget and trying to save money.
He was driving a new Saab. However I am not entirely sure that it was his car. He might even have been associated with customs or airport security. (He said that he had been to the States on several occasions.) So we said - Thank you - and he said that it would not be necessary to give him any money for going out of his way.
If I had said 'Thanks Awfully' it would have accentuated our cultural differences and it would have sounded condescending or patronising or 'false'. It would have struck a blue note!
Bye for now
Robin Michael
Thanks Awfully: has caught my eye
Google:
Thanks awfully is an expression that was used quite commonly in Britian when I was a child (slightly after the middle ages). Awfully means very,very much in this context. People were awfully good, cars were awfully expensive, so it also meant very, very... more than just very
We have a tendency to use all kinds of adverbs and adjectives to mean very or much:
terribly good, awfully nice, pretty ugly. It's not particularly precise, but it is frightfully common.
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It would be interesting to try to explain: 'pretty ugly'
Google:
Thanks awfully is an expression that was used quite commonly in Britian when I was a child (slightly after the middle ages). Awfully means very,very much in this context. People were awfully good, cars were awfully expensive, so it also meant very, very... more than just very
We have a tendency to use all kinds of adverbs and adjectives to mean very or much:
terribly good, awfully nice, pretty ugly. It's not particularly precise, but it is frightfully common.
*****************************************************
It would be interesting to try to explain: 'pretty ugly'
<<I hope that explanation was helpful !!!! >>
Not really, since it was plausible but wrong.
'Awfully' was just a common (and hyperbolic) term for 'very much' in the early Twentieth Century. Probably started as youth slang in the 1920s but now sounds frightfully dated, rather!
Not really, since it was plausible but wrong.
'Awfully' was just a common (and hyperbolic) term for 'very much' in the early Twentieth Century. Probably started as youth slang in the 1920s but now sounds frightfully dated, rather!
Ooh... You Are Awful (1972) Film
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068636/
Dick Emery Classic TV Show"Ooh, you are awful! But I like you." Dick Emery stars in the hugely successful sketch show. Famous characters include Kitchener Lampwick, Randy Mandy, ...
www.classictelly.com/programme.php?Programme=Dick_Emery - 30k - Cached - Similar pages
"Ooh... You are awful
But I like you!"
as said by Randy Mandy
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068636/
Dick Emery Classic TV Show"Ooh, you are awful! But I like you." Dick Emery stars in the hugely successful sketch show. Famous characters include Kitchener Lampwick, Randy Mandy, ...
www.classictelly.com/programme.php?Programme=Dick_Emery - 30k - Cached - Similar pages
"Ooh... You are awful
But I like you!"
as said by Randy Mandy
Awfully in this case is just an intensifier, as svealander pointed out. You can be awfully nice, it can be an awfully cold day, there can be an awful lot of money in your bank account -- it's neither good nor bad, just a magnified state of whatever condition it's modifying. It comes from "awe", which means "inspiring wonder".
The use of awful to mean "bad" -- an awful day, an awful movie -- shouldn't be confused with the use of awful or awfully to just mean "very much". Another case of one word having multiple meanings or uses.
"Thanks awfully" sounds very British, to me.
And if you really want to delve into phrases that seem to mean the opposite of how they are intended, try "frightfully good!" ;)
The use of awful to mean "bad" -- an awful day, an awful movie -- shouldn't be confused with the use of awful or awfully to just mean "very much". Another case of one word having multiple meanings or uses.
"Thanks awfully" sounds very British, to me.
And if you really want to delve into phrases that seem to mean the opposite of how they are intended, try "frightfully good!" ;)