British words!

[Louweasel]

Ok, for those on the strong women's club thread that I promised it to, and anyone else victim to my habitual thread drift, here's my thread to introduce you lovely americans to choice bits of british slang.

Recap for anyone that hasn't been on the threads I've been on recently, here are the words we've learned in the last few days:

Bollocks = men's dangly bits

Fanny = ladies', erm, lady bits

Knickers = ladies underwear

Norks = breasts

This is all very rude!!

Non-rude ones:

Soda = fizzy water

To slag someone off = to abuse or badmouth someone

A slag/hussy/tart/slapper = a **** (hussy is a bit old-fashioned but I like it!)

Questions arising from the strong women thread:

Schiavona - Bell's is a brand of scotch. So the barman was asking if that brand was ok, not being nosey about qusimodo's occupation. An optic, well, in many pubs the most commonly used spirits are in large bottle fixed upside down to the back wall of the bar. The thingy fixed to the neck of the bottle which dispenses a 25ml (or 50ml for things like martini) measure when you press a glass up against it, is an optic.

Blue falcon - fnar fnar expresses sniggering laughter. Say it to yourself and you will see!

Myra - PVC = condoms? News to me, but maybe it's a Welsh thing. Slang terms r very regional and there are words I'd use, being from the north-ish, that southerners don't get so it's not too surprising.

[thecoldroom]

I think the fact that you call nether regions "bits" is every bit as amusing as the words. The fanny one especially tickles me, as I see an endless variety of ways we could mistranslate that. "Where did you put the money dear?" "Oh it's right where it always is, tucked away safe in the fanny pack."

[blue_falcon]

On behalf of the board, I will be presumptious and express our undying gratitude! But, on behalf of the Canucks on the board, what about us?! I mean you are also, ahem, "improving" our version of the mother tongue!

Oh, and you forgot knickers! Oh, and don't forget the "boot" of a car. Along with the "bonnet" of a car. Oh, and how about a Chesterfield? And a mackintosh? A "brolly"?

Personally, I still like norks. And fnar fnar!

[JAySE SUiCiDE]

forgot some!

tea = another word for dinner

take the piss out of someone = take the fun out of it/make them feel horrible

aye = yes

awww man, i forget all of the other ones..

oh..and the dont have goldfish (the soup crackers) in england. yep.

~Jes

[Almightynoitall]

poncy = flambuoyantly homosexual

slowcoach = slowpoke

petrol = gasoline

pram = baby carriage

off-license = liquor store

and there are oh so many more...

[Haze]

there are also so many 'generational' things - new university students use a text message language that us finalists (some 2-4 yrs older!) dont really follow. Of course this translates to msn messenger, emailing and to some extent everyday speech. Everytime I chat to a kid I used to babysit (now 13) on msn I have to ask for several translations. Is all very wrong.

If we are gonna go all regional, well for a start talking to southerners is fun, can introduce them to a whole new set of confusions that never quite made it into BBC english, e.g., okey, to leg someone up, jitty, m'duck, corsey, lug 'oles, gerroutofit (probably one word, lol!), ote / note, 'trollied' (a bit further north than here and not a word I like for some reason), cag, trap (as in, 'shut yer trap'), rocks (no, not actual rocks), cossie, sen, 'the pictures'...


P.s. Happy St. George's Day (if a bit late!)

Yet again I missed the market traders' comedy re-enactment of George slaying the dragon in our city centre

[Haze]

then there is gobbing on something / someone, which isnt nice, usually performed by uneducated little ***** (insert word of choice here) who live for the 'thrill' of 10 fags a day and sharing a bottle of white lightning down the park on a friday night.

(I can see this is really gonna confuse you lot...)


Louweasel, I have never heard of norks either. Mmmm all this slang has made me think of going to the chippy, but (unsuprisingly at 1.38am) it's shut. The chippy round the corner is also a chinese - chip butty, jumbo sausage, sweet and sour sauce and prawn crackers (though they are not the nicest of chips, bit too soggy) ahem, I digress.

[Zelda]

You forgot that wonderful British institution of Pimms. And dont forget that anyone south of the Tyne is a southerner, Londoners are an intitution to themselves and the joy of private squares.

[Schiavona]

Haze-several of the term you mentioned, shut your trap, white lightning and rocks(if a subistute for nuts[men's bits, as louweasel says]) I've heard all my life. I also saw a program (or programme) on English once that said the phrase, 'I guess' was popular in the UK once upon a time but seems only to be used in North America now. You guys ever use 'cakehole' for 'gob'?

[telkanuru]

Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah!

[Louweasel]

Okay, a few points for clarification:

Blue, I did not forget knickers! Read it again!

Boot of a car = the container bit at the back where you put stuff

Bonnet of a car = the engine is underneath this

Jayse, to take the piss out of someone or something is to make fun of them. And I don't think we have any kind of soup crackers in the uk. What the hell are soup crackers?

Almightynoitall, or should I say almightynotquitenoitall, poncey isn't usually homosexual (your definition sounds like "camp") but merely a bit over the top, a bit self consciously posh, for effect, and it's slightly derogatory.

Haze, I think norks might be southern as I got it from my boyfriend who is a bit posh and from Berkshire. I myself am from Cheshire and went to university in Durham. I work in London now which means all the southerners constantly take the piss out of my accent, for saying past not parst, grass not grarss, and oop and booket instead of up and bucket. Soft southern shandy-drinking pansies that they are! Where are you from? Btw I don't know "jitty", but I really like the phrase "to get trolleyed" - for our american cousins that means to get drunk.
Another important one on that subject, here "pissed" means drunk, not angry, and mad means insane, not angry. "Pissed off" means angry.

[jeff]

I'll solicit several LOT's (Louweasel Official Translations) for "toff", 'berk", "naff", "dog's breakfast", and "Sloane Rangers" (or have they gone out of style?)

[MyraTrue]

umm...

jumper= sweater

pants = underwear

pavement? I always got the pavement confused... I'd say you drive on the pavement, but I think it may be what we americans call sidewalk, which would explain some of my confusion. What else...

there were so many of them, I just don't remember right now.

oh, and pissed has so many uses...

you can get pissed, just be pissing about, go out on a piss, er...take a piss... it could be pissing down rain, take the piss out of someone...

[Haze]

go out on /the/ piss, surely

jumper.. yeah except I always associate the word with the patterned knitted things you get from relatives at Christmas.

If you ever come here, don't drive on the pavement, you will get in a lot of trouble, and the pedestrians wont appreciate it too much either.

Originally Posted by MyraTrue

umm...

jumper= sweater

pants = underwear

pavement? I always got the pavement confused... I'd say you drive on the pavement, but I think it may be what we americans call sidewalk, which would explain some of my confusion. What else...

there were so many of them, I just don't remember right now.

oh, and pissed has so many uses...

you can get pissed, just be pissing about, go out on a piss, er...take a piss... it could be pissing down rain, take the piss out of someone...

[MyraTrue]

Yes- jumper = those knitted things that can come in so many horrible shades and patterns. Someone once told me that calling it a sweater was disgusting, and that no one ever wanted to wear something with a name like that!

oh, and yes, that should be going out on the piss. I'd sure be up for that tonight...

[Zelda]

Originally Posted by jeff

I'll solicit several LOT's (Louweasel Official Translations) for "toff", 'berk", "naff", "dog's breakfast", and "Sloane Rangers" (or have they gone out of style?)

Well I aint Lou but here are some translations

toff - someone who is very posh

berk - idiot

naff- very retro.

dog's breakfast - to make a right mess up of something

Sloane Rangers - those young female toffs with more money then sense who populate the area around Kennsington etc

[Albatros]

"to be pissed" means in brt. english to be drunk and in am. english to be furious
So be careful to shout "I'm pissed" in a american bar :-)

[jeff]

Originally Posted by Albatros

So be careful to shout "I'm pissed" in a american bar :-)

And don't ask for a wakeup call by saying "please knock me up in the morning"!

[Haze]

Originally Posted by jeff

And don't ask for a wakeup call by saying "please knock me up in the morning"!

I dunno that would probly be ok, I think it is used more in the past tense, when someone has had the misfortune of not quite being careful enough.

Louweasel, surely mad can mean angry as well still? a jitty is an alleyway

when my dad says "gorr-any rocks" he means do I have any sweets, but this is more part of a local inner city language that is not heard much now, same goes for corsey being pavement.

Also I think saying "trollied" is drunk is a bit of an understatement, certainly in my former room-mate's frequent demonstrations. (you know when some students start off on a couple of bottles of Lambrini before they go out, then go to some bars, then go clubbing, then creep around like distressed elephants supposedly trying not to wake other people up...)

[Louweasel]

Originally Posted by Haze

Louweasel, surely mad can mean angry as well still? a jitty is an alleyway

when my dad says "gorr-any rocks" he means do I have any sweets, but this is more part of a local inner city language that is not heard much now, same goes for corsey being pavement.

Also I think saying "trollied" is drunk is a bit of an understatement, certainly in my former room-mate's frequent demonstrations. (you know when some students start off on a couple of bottles of Lambrini before they go out, then go to some bars, then go clubbing, then creep around like distressed elephants supposedly trying not to wake other people up...)

I don't know, I never use mad for angry but american habits do catch on here a lot!
Jitty - ah, now we could get onto ginnels as well (lots of english people don't understand me when I use this)

Yes, trollied, laggered, lashed, bladdered, all = very very drunk.
Clarification of "naff" - possibly retro but always negative (i.e. kitsch is not necessarily bad) - can just mean bad in a rather pathetic, sad, almost embarrassing way. Like your dad dancing at a wedding!

BE CAREFUL with "berk". Not many people know it's actually cockney rhyming slang for "Berkshire Hunt", and the word that rhymes with the last bit of that, i.e. the word it actually means, well, if you can't work it out I'm far too ladylike to say!!

Addition to zelda's fine description of the sloane ranger (although the term is rare these days), they often wear tweed and gucci court shoes (for court shoes - see below) and have doube barrelled surnames, which in england is more likely to mean you are posh than that you added your husband's name to your own. I think A lot of people either just keep their own or take only their husbands as the two together does have connotations of being a toff/sloane.

Court shoes = nothing to do with sport. Smart ladies shoes, non-strappy with no cut out bits, medium heel, respectable. Wear with a suit. Hence screeches of laughter when I read on this board about a bloke fencing in court shoes!!

Jeff, I think to many english people know the us version of "knock you up" so you only hear it from older people now really.

To describe a mess, you can also say "dog's dinner" as well as "dog's breakfast".
I'm not sure why this next one seems related, but it does to me, so hre goes. If you are looking a mess, with untidy clothes and especially untidy unbrished hair, it can be said that you "look like you've been dragged through a hedge backwards".

Sorry I deserted you all for the last day or so, but I went to see my boyfriend. Who is off to California tomorrow for 10 days or so as his sister is marrying a septic (septic tank = yank!) so I am not feeling that kindly disposed to y'all at the moment as I am blaming all americans for indirectly causing me to be without any contact with my bf (too expensive to phone/text) for nearly a fortnight (another good brit word = two weeks). If his sister wasn't marrying one of your countrymen he wouldn't have to go all that way for so long! I am only joking of course. So anyone in LA, be nice to any tall blond handsome bearded young men in kilts. In all probability they won't be my bf, but you never know.