More difficult

Having just reported a case at reference 1 where Gemini did well, I now report a more tricky one, probably more typical of the use I make of him.

For some reason, I got to thinking about a recreational activity in Belfast bars which I had once read about involving two people in a competitive boasting or insulting match. Or something of that sort. But something which would have caught my attention, with my having spent a fair bit of time in Belfast over the years - although not in the sort of locals' bars where this sort of thing might have gone on. I had never come across it.

Nevertheless, my recollection was that there was a name for this popular activity, an activity which might well have been popular with locals, but one which newcomers or visitors were said to find a bit difficult. This morning I could not think of the name.

First stop was Bing and Google, neither of whom were much help, being more interested in listing good bars to visit. Google also turned up a lot of posts on social media, particularly TikTok which I did not look into.

Second stop was Gemini, and he offered banter, slagging and flyting. I did not think that banter or slagging were obscure enough. While flyting (or flitting, from flite) was a good fit to my meaning, but too Scottish, too old and obscure. And I don't think I had previously heard of the word. 

I then thought of sledging, more cricket than Belfast. Some of the examples of this last turned up by Google were obscene, while I thought the one snapped above was a bit weak. Maybe it sounded OK in the heat of the moment. But the word was too cricket, with no mention of Belfast being turned up.

Last up were barking, barracking, bragging and fragging. The first of which did not fit very well and the second of which was a more collective activity, rather than a duel - and was not recognised by my old OED at all, although the Internet knew about the usage. The third is possible and the fourth probably wrong.

So I didn't get to a good answer. And the answer may actually be that my memory is playing tricks again, that the answer is the fairly ordinary word banter. Or worse, that the whole thing is more or less an invention. Maybe something will come back to me.

But it all goes to show that there are limits to what you can deduce from text which is readily available to search on the Internet.

PS 1: flitting is in OED, where Gemini's poetic squabbling from the Middle Ages is present, and there is also a suggestion that it is what ladies did later, rather than gents. A relative of scolding.

PS 2: I associate to a late evening argument in TB, some years ago now, about some obscure fact about Elvis Presley. It was reasonably clear that one person was certainly wrong and the other person was probably right - but the person who was wrong kept it up, kept defending his corner against all the odds. He was not going to back down, even though he probably knew he was wrong. All very entertaining - but not a game that I could play with any conviction.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/03/hanging-tongues.html.