Words you first learnt in a Blyton book!

[Fiona1986]

Oh that reminds me, Diana mooning. We do not use the word mooning to mean what she does at all, it has a very different meaning here

[Courtenay]

And in Australia too, but I do know the less rude meaning of the word and I don't think the alternative even crossed my mind when I read about Dinah doing it!! (Well, even when I was little I knew the song from Grease: "I spend my day-ays... just moo-oo-oo-oo-oon-ing..." — which I could understand perfectly well from the context and I couldn't be bothered laughing at the other possible meaning there either.)

[Fiona1986]

I had to Google that, as I don't remember such a song from Grease but it turns out it was cut from the movie. I had never heard of that meaning of mooning when I read the Barney Mysteries.

[IceMaiden]

That line threw me too. I've seen Grease heaps of times and don't recall a song like that, the closest I could think of was that they are lyrics from that Blue Moon song they have at the prom .

[Courtenay]

I've never actually seen the film or the stage play — we just had the soundtrack on cassette when I was little, which is how I know the song!

[Anita Bensoussane]

My sister and I bought the soundtrack to Grease on vinyl in 1978 and played it repeatedly, though we were too young to be aware of the double entendres!

[IceMaiden]

If you like movie musicals Courtenay I'd highly recommend giving it a watch. It's delightful, the high school experience I wish I'd had.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Although I like the music and clothes in Grease - oh, and the diner! - I find the exaggerated portrayal of high school life with its cliques, posturing and overpowering peer pressure most depressing.

[Courtenay]

That kind of setting honestly doesn't grab me either, which is why I've never bothered to watch it. Some good songs, though.

[sayantani]

I have to say I learned the names of flowers like celandines, dandelions, buttercups which never grew in India..and food like brawn and tongue which we didn't eat either! Thanks to EB my vocabulary was exposed to these novelties.

[pete9012S]

Five On A Treasure Island: lolloping

But he held himself in and walked solemnly by the children, his eyes watching the lolloping rabbits longingly.

[Red Tower]

Patrins were the signpostings that gypsies left for each other. I have only come across that word in EB books.

[Anne Gracie]

Patrins were the signpostings that gypsies left for each other. I have only come across that word in EB books.

Yes same too. I had to actually check that it was in fact a real word. I always thought it was just a creative and inventive word that EB used in her books - the same goes for ingots.

Calling someone an ass. To me first and foremost this is an animal related to the horse family. So not a new word but a new context.

[Anne Gracie]

Came across another new one this week - a coal scuttle? - a metal container with a sloping lid used to carry coal for a domestic fire. “‘Good idea!’ cried everyone, and Gobo danced around the room so excitedly that he fell over the coal scuttle and sent the fire-irons clanking to the floor.” - from Adventures of The Wishing-Chair.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Ah yes - I also learnt "coal scuttle" (and "poker" too) from Enid Blyton books like the Wishing-Chair books and several short stories.

Oh, and I came across "barley sugar" for the first time in The Naughtiest Girl in the School, and "butterscotch" in the short story 'Polly's Ps and Qs'.