www.ditl.org

Meh, it could be worse - unless you're a Spurs fan.

I assume that you're not referring to San Antonio?

Nope - Tottenham Hotspur. Who are currently propping up the Premiership, having had their worst start to a season for almost a century.

Heh, hate that.

I don't know what confuses me more - your vernacular or your sports. How are they "propping up" the league if they're doing so poorly?

Mikey wrote:I don't know what confuses me more - your vernacular or your sports...

I was thinking something similar.

It makes sense if you think of the league in terms of a physical structure - a building is "propped up", as it were, by its foundations. Hence, the team at the bottom of the league table is said to be propping it up.

Around me, at least, we'd use that term to indicate some sort of positive support - a team that was succesful and making decent income would be said to be "propping up" a failing league, for example.

Mikey wrote:Around me, at least, we'd use that term to indicate some sort of positive support - a team that was succesful and making decent income would be said to be "propping up" a failing league, for example.

Indeed - it makes sense in financial and literal physical terms. It does not, however, make sense in a country where irony and piss-taking are national pastimes.

Captain Seafort wrote:piss-taking

see above.

Hmm, tricky. Consider it a form of mockery (at least in this context), although that word implies something harsher than simply taking the piss.

Good-natured ribbing, then?

Mikey wrote:Good-natured ribbing, then?

More or less - good natured, but pointed.

Ah - as in, "Most of the DITL forum exchanges involve a good deal of taking the piss?"

Exactly.