Earlier quoted context omitted.
Punic refers to the people. Carthage was the name of their city, so they're also referred to as Carthaginians (see also: New Yorkers, Londoners, Dubliners, Parisians, etc.).
You chose some relatively ordinary demonyms, these are some fun ones: Mancunian, Muscovite, Liverpudlian, Glaswegian, Munsonian, Buddies.
Ha-ha wall
61–70 of 115 posts
Re: Ha-ha wall
#62Re: Ha-ha wall
#63See also the 'Punic ditch'. I can't find a good description online ([1] is the most specific), but basically it's a fortification comprising a human-scale haha with the wall on the outward side, and the slope on the inward side. The idea is that attackers can cross it easily, by jumping down the wall, then charging up the slope, at which point you open fire on them, then when they turn to run way, they have to climb…
Re: Ha-ha wall
#64The popularity of freerunning/parkour makes me doubt their usefulness as a security device, unless they're made significantly wider & deeper than the wikipedia examples.
Re: Ha-ha wall
#65A small youtube channel I follow just posted a video about these- specifically one next to an unfriendly military base on a street aptly named “ha ha road”. https://youtube.com/watch?v=pHHGSfd6rPk
The video obviously explains the history of this military base, but what the ha-ha "protects" nowadays is actually not a firing range but a football/cricket pitch and some other MOD sports facilities that are open to the public. I'm using them several times a week. You can also book the space for events.
So fortunately this area is not quite as scary and unfriendly as it appears in the vid. Sadly, the sheep were all scared off. No trace of them, ha ha.
Re: Ha-ha wall
#66See also the 'Punic ditch'. I can't find a good description online ([1] is the most specific), but basically it's a fortification comprising a human-scale haha with the wall on the outward side, and the slope on the inward side. The idea is that attackers can cross it easily, by jumping down the wall, then charging up the slope, at which point you open fire on them, then when they turn to run way, they have to climb…
Seems pretty irrelevant if you've got the numbers on the defenders. Just don't retreat and throw bodies into the wide open breach. You'd drive right over just fine like a spike strip facing the wrong way.
Re: Ha-ha wall
#67Re: Ha-ha wall
#68And in Ankh Morpork, there's the hoho: A cunningly designed ditch like a Haha, only the Hoho is 50 feet deep. Has claimed three Palace gardeners. Also once trapped Dr. Cruces, then head of the Assassins' Guild.
Yep, and as mentioned in the article, there's also a he-he. A description is never given of it, but it's a safe assumption that it's a tiny haha, possibly only a couple inches high. Interestingly, if this is accurate, it means that the front/backness of the vowel in hehe/haha/hoho correlates with its size.
Re: Ha-ha wall
#69These are quite common in Gloucestershire but you would not know it unless you have some reason to be invited to the big houses that have estates. The health and safety considerations cited in the Wikipedia page don't apply to the ha-ha walls that are situated in sizeable estates. The big house, the extensive gardens and the fields beyond are owned by the same family. It has all been inherited rather than bought with…
It's more of a discouragement than a fortification. It's not hard to scramble over it if you really want to.
Re: Ha-ha wall
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
Punic refers to the people. Carthage was the name of their city, so they're also referred to as Carthaginians (see also: New Yorkers, Londoners, Dubliners, Parisians, etc.).
You chose some relatively ordinary demonyms, these are some fun ones: Mancunian, Muscovite, Liverpudlian, Glaswegian, Munsonian, Buddies.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geordie
Quote of the day:
"poems by the Anglo-Saxon scholar the Venerable Bede translate more successfully into Geordie than into Standard English"
The Venerable Bede will for evermore have a Geordie accent.
I also like to call people for Norfolk, Norfolk (as in folk), I don't think that's standard though.