Saturday, January 05, 2008
Hellbox
A hellbox is harmless really. It's a box used by printers in former times for holding broken or discarded type. Not sure why it received such a fraught name but perhaps someone with knowledge of the printing industry will enlighten us through the blog. The idea of a hellbox certainly opened up a can of worms among our word imps today. Hope you're all feeling a lot happier by now. Sara will be pleased to know that her invented meaning drew the most votes and took her to the top of the poll today. Great work!
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8 comments:
The hellbox is where you threaten to put your children's toys when they misbehave (the children, not the toys, that is). The threat of a favourite teddy being subjected to unmentionable torture in said box is usually enough to put a child on his/her best behaviour for a good few hours.
The hellbox is the ridiculously small room that your furnace is kept in. Whenever one enters the hellbox, it is so hot that the eyebrows begin to smoke and blisters simultaneously appear.
A hellbox will be familiar to anyone who has owned a very old car. The gear change is so worn and sloppy that the lever flops around randomly giving no indication of which gear you've selected.
'Yep, she's a sporty li'l number, sir. You'll love the super-slick quick-change hellbox...once you get used to it.'
tgw44.blogspot.com
The Hellbox is a receptacle used to hold and retain nuclear waste.
The Hellbox, was the original name for the telephone. It was called that because of the annoyance of being interrupted by this ringing contraption. It is from this that the word 'hello' derived. When the phone rang the recipient would utter the words "Hell" as an exclamation of impatience at being interrupted. This was quickly followed by "Oh it's you". Thereby giving the greeting "Hell-o". Anyway, I digress, it was called a hellbox because it was an annoying interruption - and still is at times.
Late 19th century western U.S.: Small-town jails, separate from other buildings. Just a kind of half cellar or little shed with one door and no windows. Solitary confinement for wild-west drunks and bad guys.
Slang used by Welsh coal miners for their elevator cage:
"Forty minutes in th' hell box t' the fresh seam."
"Aye, but me missus packed my lunch."
The hellbox, currently, is my house. Where my already refluxy child has caught a stomach virus. Double the pukey fun. Woo hoo!
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