So, I awakened from a dream with most of the conversation dissolving into mist as they so often do, but I could still hear one of the characters saying, “Well, he’s kind of a berk, you know.”
Now, “berk” is not a word I have ever used, nor did I know the meaning or origin or proper spelling or if it was even really a word. So, why was this person in my dream saying it? I had a sense that it was some sort of English insult and felt compelled to look it up. Well, turns out I was right about spelling and country of origin; but from there it gets kind of complicated.
It involves “rhyming slang”, which I have never been able to get my head around. It is a secret language which apparently everyone knows in which a word is replaced with a longer phrase ending in a rhyme for the secret word. In this case it is further complicated by having turned into a shortened version of the phrase which does not even include the rhyme. The complete phrase is “Berkeley Hunt.” (The most famous of British fox hunts.)
Further, fahther, the meaning has become a milder insult than the word which it supposedly stands in for which is itself a much milder and more common epithet in England than in these parts, pardon the expression.
Know what I mean, Vern?