Help On Some Mal Lingo

POSTED BY: Jongsstraw
UPDATED: Monday, March 10, 2008 06:59
VIEWED: 4162
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JONGSSTRAW

Friday, October 12, 2007 11:40 AM

Out Of Gas : Mal says to Kaylee that she needs to " suss up " what happened. I guess it means "figure out"...but where does it come from?

Serenity Movie : The "Love" speech...Mal says " before she "keens"..Okay, what's that?

Thanks!

JADEHAND

Friday, October 12, 2007 11:45 AM

suss out

Definitions
suss
sus (slang)
verb susses, sussed, sussing

1. To discover, assess or establish something, especially by investigation or intuition.
Example: soon sussed how the video worked2. To suspect something.

noun

1. A suspect.
2. Suspicion or suspicious behaviour.
3. Shrewdness; sharp-wittedness.

Etymology: 1930s: a shortened form of suspect or suspicion.

Phrasal Verb: suss something out

To investigate, inspect or examine.
Example: sussed out the nightlifeTo work out or understand.
Example: couldn't suss out his motives

Keen \Keen\, v. i.
To wail as a keener does. {Ireland}

A man who walks the Earth

JONGSSTRAW

Friday, October 12, 2007 11:53 AM

Thanks Jadehand.

CLEMENTINE

Friday, October 12, 2007 1:57 PM

O.k. How about in Serenity?
Fanty: That's a good crew, you've got there.
Mal: Yeah, their a fine bunch of reubens.

I don't understand reuben in this context.

JONGSSTRAW

Friday, October 12, 2007 5:39 PM

Yep, that's another one I don't know.

"Rube" comes to mind...meaning a novice, a rookie, but I don't know for sure.

CLEMENTINE

Friday, October 12, 2007 5:50 PM

Jadehand, do you know? I saw a reference once to the "creative use of slang" but it still didn't say what it meant.

VIOLYNS

Friday, October 12, 2007 5:52 PM

At first, I thought it pertained to the painter, Pieter Pauwel Rubens < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Paul_Rubens>, but it might be referring to the slang term for farmers which is "reubens." I'm not sure...

-----
~mia
"I will never cease to fly if held down."

Serenifly Costumes http://serenifly.tripod.com

CLEMENTINE

Friday, October 12, 2007 6:07 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by violyns:
it might be referring to the slang term for farmers which is "reubens."

I thought that might be too and it's the origin of the Rube term that Jongsstraw refers to above. But it doesn't make sense to me that Mal calls his crew "farmers" or rural people. It may be true of Mal and Kaylee but not the others so much.

FREEBROWNCOAT

Friday, October 12, 2007 6:32 PM

Reubens refers to marks at a carny or country bumpkins. Always wondered about that line. Never liked it.

JONGSSTRAW

Friday, October 12, 2007 6:34 PM

These "possibilities" are a bit remote, but :

Paul REUBENS, aka Pee Wee Hermann....maybe even in 500 years his legacy lives (was in the original Buffy movie)

The REUBEN sandwich...the favorite food of the Thermians in GalaxyQuest

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