Definitions & History

POSTED BY: Ruxton
UPDATED: Monday, March 31, 2003 15:47
VIEWED: 2051
PAGE 1 of 1

RUXTON

Saturday, March 29, 2003 10:44 PM

A bit of history, and some opinions....

REAVERS is an old term for RAIDERS, the term going back a long time to England or Scotland. About 40 years ago there was a prominent English car-racing team by the name of "Border Reavers." Joss' use of the term is thus appropriate.

The use of "SHINE" or "shiny," I suspect, comes again from Whedon's digging into history, going back to the time of the mountain men. Those fearsome hardies, like the Firefly crew, lived and thrived way past the outer edges of civilization. They dealt with Indians, starvation, injury, and all kinds of misfortune on a daily basis and did it without complaint. The mountain men commonly used the term "shine" in a context like, "That don't shine with me," maaning the thing in question doesn't sit well with the viewer. If they liked something, the mountaineer might say, "Don't that just shine! Wagh!"

Another common use of the word back in the early 1800s, still used today, was to call the Rockies the "shining mountains," not entirely because of the snow, but also because the mountaineers loved their mountain environment and all its deadly perils.

..........Ruxton.

MOOLA

Monday, March 31, 2003 3:47 PM

Also, "Don't shine me on" as in "Don't bullsh!t me" and "He don't know sh!t from shinola" as in "He don't know what he's talkin' about".

"To survive, one must be able to adapt to changing situations." - T. Rex