DRUTHERS in yesterday’s UNDERSHIRT ten letter game

[pat]

What does oo-er mean?

I suppose the simplest meaning is that it's a sort of semi-humorous expression of surprise or alarm. The comment that prompted my use of it seemed a bit... struggling for a word here, which is probably why I said oo-er.

[cmh]

I  think oo-er is probably just a British thing. Good explanation Pat.

I can't remember which comedian from years back had the catch phrase "oo-er Missis!"? Possibly Frankie Howard? Slightly different context in his useage though!

[Wibbly Bits]

In Oz, we used to say 'oo ah'. Comedienne Jeannie Little was famous for it. And for the record, I have changed my mind, and agree that 'druthers' is acceptable as a word, but only a rare one due to it being a uniquely US creation.

[TRex]

I grew up in the US Central states (Kansas, Nebraska).  I often heard the phrase "Given my druthers, I'd ..." and I've probably used it on occasion.  I didn't play it because I didn't think it would be common.

My father (grew up in New Jersey) used it. My mother (grew up in Québec and Maryland) did not. Neither my wife nor I use it.

[Ozzyjack]

Once you are alerted to a word, you seem to hear it everywhere. One of our top crop of young actors, Nicki Sheils, who grew up in Wollongong, used it on today's ABC morning breakfast show.

Sheils is the leading actor in a new play Sunday , which asks: would Sidney Nolan have become the artist he became if not for Sunday Reed?

Sunday is a glimpse into the private world of the philanthropist and art patron Sunday Reed.

Sunday, born into the privileged Baillieu family, was a mobilising force in the revolutionary literary and art movement that became the Angry Penguins.

Structured around a loose interpretation of Sunday’s fractured menage à trois with painter Sidney Nolan and her husband, arts editor John Reed, the play unfolds the story of an unconventional, impulsive and passionate woman whose sheer force of character and talent for recognising and cultivating artistic brilliance helped forge the Modernist movement in mid-century Melbourne.

Set in the Reeds’ home and garden at Heide (later to become the Heide Museum of Modern Art), the play has a solid ensemble cast and a sleek and polished production design.

Fragmented scenes shift backwards and forwards through time to build an absorbing picture of the circle of artists who gathered around the Reeds, largely through Sunday’s determination to resist the constrained social conventions that pervaded Melbourne society at that time.

Characterised by a kind of quick-witted, Dorothy Parker-style dialogue which rollicks along, the play is enjoyably parochial in its depiction of characters who played such a crucial role in Australia’s – and Melbourne’s – artistic evolution.

The Reeds’ house and garden at Heide became a central focus for a bohemian and unconventional lifestyle, complete with gatherings, events, arguments and love triangles, which fostered the careers of key Australian artists such as Albert Tucker, Joy Hester, Arthur Boyd and John Perceval.

We were warned it contains nudity,  Even so, some of you Melburnians  may be interested in checking it out.

Having been corrected, I will amend the next bit


For me it raises the question should Druthers be common, rare or not allowed.

My druthers is to sit on the sidelines and watch.

[ridethetalk]

We were warned it contains nudity,  Even so, some of you Melburnians  may be interested in checking it out.

For me it raises the question should Druther be common, rare or not allowed.

I'd druther sit on the sidelines and watch.

Some Melburnians may be interested in checking it out because it contains nudity...

As for the word in question: it was the plural form druthers that caused the stir and, considering that it is a plural form of druther, I vote (if voting were an option!  ) that druthers be consigned to the rubbish heap... 

[Wibbly Bits]

Hmm, interesting. I always thought that 'druther' was a slang abbreviation of 'I'd rather". And I took the word 'druthers' to translate back to something like 'things I'd rather not xyz". I understand it to be a singular noun that happens to end with the letter 's', like the word 'lens'. Maybe as a slang expression, the normal rules of grammar might not apply. I'm no English professor, so don't take my word for it.   

[2dognight]

Druthers - I am with John

The rubbish heap is the best place for it

[jem01060]

Druthers is only used in the plural. That's why, ridethetalk, you correctly got "unknown" when you played it. There are some words in English that are only used in the plural. I believe "tongs," "pants," "pliers," "suds," "thanks," "trousers," and "remains" would be accepted as common in this game.

[ridethetalk]

May I refer you to this jem01060:


Did you know?
Druther is an alteration of "would rather." "Any way you druther have it, that is the way I druther have it," says Huck to Tom in Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer, Detective. This example of metanalysis (the shifting of a sound from one element of a phrase to another) had been around for some time in everyday speech when Twain put those words in Huck's mouth. By then, in fact, druthers had already become a plural noun, so Tom could reply, "There ain't any druthers about it, Huck Finn; nobody said anything about druthers." Druthers is a dialectal term.

Reference here: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/druthers

...and my simple google of the singular brings up:

druther
/ˈdrʌðə/
INFORMAL•NORTH AMERICAN
noun
plural noun: druthers

[pat]

I believe "tongs," "pants," "pliers," "suds," "thanks," "trousers," and "remains" would be accepted as common in this game.

Pants is Alan's bête noir. Let's not even go there! Thanks and remains wouldn't be accepted because they're also the third person singular of their respective verb. Words formed by simply adding 's' are generally not accepted, whether they're plurals or parts of  verbs. I think this is a can of worms best left unopened as it's caused much discussion in the past!

[Maudland]

The question isn’t whether druthers exists as a word - obviously it does! The question is whether it should be classified as a common word. I vote no.

A reminder of the distinction (bearing in mind it’s always going to be a bit loose): the words classed as "common" are meant to be more widely known and used than those classed as "rare". The aim is that a reasonably well-read English-speaking person will be likely to have encountered all of our "common" words at some time.

[Alan W]

As Maudland reminds us, the question was whether druthers should continue to be treated as a common word.

In the discussion, some felt it shouldn't be accepted as a word at all, for various reasons.

As people have said, it's a colloquialism derived from "I'd rather", and used especially in some US regions. However, I believe it's not quite as rare, or as regionally restricted, as people seem to think.

Most dictionaries list druthers, rather than druther. Occasionally one sees "druther" in a publication, but usually in dialogue, as a representation of how a character says "would rather". But the derived word druthers means preference, often in the phrase "If I had my druthers..." A typical example is from this forum, way back in 2007, when our first forumite, biggerbirdbrain, wrote:

If I had my druthers, I'd just keep two homes -- one for winter (in the south) and one for summer (just a little less southerly) and never see winter again.

As jem01060 says, there is no singular form corresponding to druthers. Hence druther is not a word and druthers is.

As for my claim that druthers is more widely used than people seem to think, look at this, from the News on the Web corpus:



It seems that the word is used most often in Canada and Australia, with the US coming in third! Of course the usage patterns in online newspapers may not reflect usage in daily speech. Nevertheless, it is clear that quite a few journalists around the world have occasionally used druthers. Some examples from Australian publications:

Clearly, if the government had its druthers, the Reserve Bank of Australia would have waited until its next meeting in June to raise rates.

Australian Financial Review

Autumn leaves or wood chips or sawdust are my favourites, as they are most easily available, but if I had my druthers - and enough money - it'd put down a thick mulch of pea straw or lucerne hay, then layer compost thickly on top of that.

Canberra Times

But if Morrison had any further regrets, it would be that his privatisation druthers had been revealed.

The Saturday Paper

So, the new coach will get his druthers, but that authority comes at a cost...

The Age

Many of the arguments raised against voluntary voting rely upon the resigned assumption that, given their druthers, most people could not be bothered voting.

ABC Online

Nevertheless, I accept that the word is not common, so it will be treated as rare in future.

[2dognight]

Thank you Alan

Still not sure what it means 

[Jacki]

Thanks Alan