MissPrism

I thought that our American friends might be interested in this article:

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/...p?story=635958
or http://tinyurl.com/9p5gp

kvadragon

MissPrism-

I enjoyed the article...I suppose I am now ready to be unleashed on the British public now that I know the lingo (we're leaving in two weeks!).

One thing I thought was interesting is that many of these words have already jumped the pond. Many people here use the words "scorcher", "loads" and "peckish". Other words may not be part of the vernacular but the meaning is known to many Americans, especially if one has ever watched a Brit comedy on tv.

tedgale

Faff? Mitts? Loads? If I used any of those with my neighbours, I would confuse no-one.

By way of contrast, consider these truly ambiguous, hence deceptive, UK usages that BA has omitted: pudding, boot, windscreen...

Or the purely British coinages that mystify: naff, tosser, scrubber...

Or the British terms abandoned by departed administrators that flourish still in the former African colonies: jerry-can (W. Africa - gas-can), cutlass (W. Africa - machete; the E African term is panga)...

"Blower" is still used here in Canada but only ever with satirical intent (or "ironically", as the young mistakenly say). To me it sounds as RAF-archaic as Wizard and Topping

MissPrism

Yes, my husband remembers "blower" from Boys' Own type adventure stories.

"Give me a tinkle on the blower", might raise an eyebrow. In certain circles it might do more than that ;-)

tedgale

Oh no, you do not give a ring...or a tinkle...on the blower.

You can only Get on the blower...or Shout down the blower.

oldie

Try the famous echo in the British Museum Reading Room.
On entering a railway or underground compartment, always shake hands with everyone present.

Can other oldies remember the other advice?

tedgale

Actually the Boy s Own reference made me think of my mother growing up in rural Nova Scotia in the dark days of the 30s.

In a trunk in her room (which I occupied on a visit 30 years later) were the books she and her sisters were raised on -- cast-offs, no doubt, since there was not a bookstore for miles:

Girl s Own annuals depicting a weird and utterly foreign world: Maths mistresses; field hockey; crumpets and coal fires...Tosh, Ripping, Super....

What CAN she have imagined England to be like...

ira

>FAFF: Means indecisive. "We would have been on time if she wasn't a faffer"<

if she **weren't** a faffer.

BTilke

faffing isn't so much indecisive as dithering around doing unimportant stuff (in someone's opinion). I learned the word from my half-British husband and British mum-in-law, although she spells it "pfaffing." Probably because my father-in-law is German and some German spelling rubbed off.
Before they go anywhere, there's always a lot of last minute scurrying around. My British mum-in-law calls it Pfaffing; my German father-in-law calls it doing things properly. My husband, who is officially Canadian, merely pops open a beer and waits till they're ready.

sheila

Faffing is not a word. It is a disease.

we holiday often with friends, and it is/was the bane of my holidays that I cannot get them out the door before 11 in the morning. Because they faff.

And the husband..... His long suffering wife is rounding up the kids- usually aided and abetted by one or more of us, deciding what they should wear, making sure their dookers are packed and all of that good stuff, and he will stand, for half an hour at a time arms akimbo, watching her faff, and complaining about it!!

I love them all dearly but only becuase, over the years, I've learned to do what BTilke's husband does

PatrickLondon

Um, Sheila, forgive a Sassenach's ignorance, but what is a dooker (I can guess, but where does it come from?)

AR

If you really want to hear the English language crucified or just become completely confused then come to Wales where you will hear us order a pint of whoosh, eat Jibbons, ask "who's coat is that jacket?", be bad in bed under the doctor, send the dog to the cwtch, mitch off school, think that some bloke is "lush", say "cowin' hell mun", hear that a relative is in hospital with his legs...........etc etc etc.

We like to call it Wengslish.

sheila

Your dookers is your swimming costume. Normally boy's but could be a girl's.