British Synonyms

[Leather man]

Originally Posted by fcuknu

I watch a good amount of British "Tele" and I work with a british woman and I have come to enjoy the words that "pop in" to an otherwise americanized conversation. Some examples include...

Holiday rather than vacation. "I am going on Holiday tomorrow"

Cheeky rather than gaudy. "Oh Kevin, always talking about money, youre so cheeky".

Mental rather than marsupialed. "Oh he is just mental"

Cock rather than prick. "That guy with the oakley sunglasses is a cock.

Anybody else have any other examples?


We don't use "cheeky" in that context. We might say "Oh Kevin, you're always talking about money, your so vulgar/cheap/boring/ etc " but not "cheeky"

On AAAC I used the word "jumper" which means a "sweater" in the UK and one user was very amused because he says in the US a jumper is a kind of young girl's garment!

 

[allanInNM]

Hello, all! New to the forum, my first post.

On my shelves I have a whole book of them:

British Self-Taught: With Comments in American
by Norman W. Schur,
with illustrations by Alex Graham (the man who draws the "Fred Bassett" comic strip).
Macmillan, 1973.

Delightful! Well worth a search.

Cheers,

- Allan

 

[fuji]

Originally Posted by EnglishGent

This thread reminds me of when a simple language misunderstanding almost cost me my engagement when I first came to the US. I was in the car with the future wife, mother-in-law and brother-in-law when someone asked me a question about one of my friends. I said that he could be a bit of a twat sometimes (not an unusual term to here where I grew up and not all the offensive in the sense it was intended). The jaws of the three in the car dropped and I was told to get out of the car, after some quick thinking/talking I managed to figure out the mistake I'd made and explain the situation. I later found out how offensive many people deem the word twat to be and never used it infront of the wife.

I once had an American teacher at school and when I called someone a twat I got sent out of the class. I had to explain to her that its not exactly an offensive word in England.

 

[Mr Herbert]

as an australian ive always got in trouble in America with the use of the word 'piss' to describe booze, and 'pissed' to describe inebriation.

the american use of the word 'fanny' has always amused me - especially 'fanny pack'

bollocks is a fairly usefull word meaning everything from exclamation of disbeleive (bollocks!), something grand (the dogs bollocks), being drunk (bollocksed) or just plain testes.

 

[Connemara]

Originally Posted by Mr Herbert

as an australian ive always got in trouble in America with the use of the word 'piss' to describe booze, and 'pissed' to describe inebriation.
Yeah. Ask someone if they'd like a bottle of piss and they'll get mad at you.

 

[Sherlockian]

Twat is about on a par with calling someone a knobhead. You wouldn't address a teacher with such a term, but you'd be unlikely to suffer more than a cursory verbal reprimand if overheard mocking a classmate in this way.

Wanker is usually a bit more vitriolic and offensive, a common retort to someone who cuts you up on the motorway (freeway) or spills your pint (568ml of lager, bitter, stout or ale) but I heard it being thrown around quite liberally in Australia. Same goes for **** in Ireland, where it is a common term of endearment between friends.

Cheeky is often used to describe playfully mocking or flirtatious behaviour. Taken to a more serious level of provocation can be described as giving someone a bit of lip.

One I occasionally use, as handed down from my parents' generation in the east-end of London, is cowson. A disapproving term for a badly-behaved little scrote. Probably the most succinct example I could find was from Wiktionary, as in "that cowson still owes me five quid".

 

[Mr Herbert]

twat < wanker < tosser

 

[willpower]

Snog - to kiss

Pudding - Dessert

 

[DukesofStratosphear]

I suggest Americans watch the Carry On series of films for a deep look into the collective English psyche.

You'll need a dictionary of English slang by your side too.

 

[Mr Herbert]

living in a warm climate witch lots of british tourists, ive always been amused at the many ways they can describe how sweaty they are

sweating like a **** on a school bus
sweating like a nun in a field of cucumbers
sweating like a blind lesbian at the fish mongers

etc

 

[Matt]

personally Ive always liked 'sweating like I raped a village' or 'sweating like i raped a kindergarten'

 

[fwiffo]

A mate of mine was waiting for his baby so he had to stay sober for awhile and told me he had to resort to "shandy" and felt like a fairy...I had to look that one up.

 

[PaulSLH]

Originally Posted by willpower

Pudding - Dessert

But we have 'dessert' too, and they mean different things, pudding is the sweet course, and dessert is the cheese/fruit course that follows the pudding. Then of course there is the issue of the 'pudding' as a dish rather than course, which doesn't necessarily even have to be sweet. Christmas pudding, rice pudding, sticky toffee pudding etc. and savoury ones like yorkshire pudding or black pudding.

 

[Mr. Clean]

Can someone explain why the British call female breasts "bangers"? It has always seemed like an exceptional ugly word to me.

 

[Sherlockian]

^ Have a little browse on GHM or ISF, as regularly discussed in the Dumb Threads threak "I don't want to bang most chicks". And you think the word is ugly...

Have you heard of "Bristols" (Bristol Cities - *******)?