Is using “cheers” instead of “thanks” common in the UK? I read a book about a week ago that seemed to use it that way, then encountered it on another message board; I’d never seen it before then.
Other words I’ve wondered about:
What does “slated” mean to a someone from the UK? I take it to be an insult, and not a synonym for “scheduled.”
Is a/the “Chippie” (or “chippy”) really a common term for a fish and chips place? To me it’s a slang term for a prostitute, so I find it amusing…
In the US “series” refers to a show in it’s entirety (ex. “Firefly” is a new series by Josh Whedon coming this fall; his other series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer is entering its 7th season as well), and each year’s worth of new shows is a “season.” Since they use series in the UK the same way we use season, what do they call a show in general? just program? How did “series” end up with such different meanings, anyway? It’s not as though TV has been around hundreds of years, giving the words a long time to evolve in meaning.
Yes " Chippy " is quite common for a fish and chip shop. " Series " has the same meaning as your season - you will here the announcer say this " programme ( note the spelling! ) is the last in the present series". Just to confuse things "chippy "also can mean a carpenter.
‘Slated’ has, to me, at least two meanings in the UK.
For example, " the next programme is slated to appear at…"
or, more rarely, “the next train is slated to arrive at…”
‘Slated’ can also be used in the sense of admonishing someone;
for example, " the manager slated the new office workers for their mistakes…"
It is also common for an American to talk about the guys at a bachelor party going on a bender. (Drinking too much alcohol.)
I understand that would have a different meaning in the UK.
I am more curious as to what “brilliant” now means in British English…in the US it is mostly used sarcastically when someone does something incredibly stupid.
However, “brilliant” seems to be used often as a catch-all phrase for “good” in the shows I have been watching on BBC America.
We used to immitate to irritate a teacher who said “Cheers” instead of “Thank you”. 13 years on and I’m still saying it .
“Cheers” is fairly common. I think more so with the early/mid twenties to mid thirties, but that’s just my experience (the teacher would now be 50, so it’s not just 20/30s).
Don’t mean to beat the dead horse, but back to “brilliant”…I am sort of a Changing Rooms junkie and it seems when they see a color they like, “brilliant” or when a designer comes up with a good idea, “that’s brilliant” or when a couple are working together and they finish a hard task, “brilliant, we’re off” and when they are offered a tea break, “brilliant, thank you” and when they open their eyes to see an improvement, “it’s f***in’ brilliant”.
Seriously, I hear that word more often in one episode of that show than I’ve heard in conversation here in one year. Maybe it’s a regional thing…
Now that’s still funny. Sort of like if people started refering to a bait and tackle shop as “hookers” Chippy also seems to mean something about sparrows, but I’ve never heard it used that way;I suppose I should hang out with more bird watchers to hear it used in that manner. (The feathered kind of birds, that is, not women.)
Not a regional thing, but a hype thing. It’s what happens when you have a bunch of intellectually-challenged people scraping the bottom of their vocabulary barrel when trying to keep the viewers from switching channel away from a banal show. You can tell I’m not a fan can’t you?
I’d have to disagree with ‘brilliant’ being most commonly used sarcastically in American English. While it is often used that way, I would definately say that it has not even come close to changing meanings of the word.
Likewise, “radical” did not not change meanings in the 80s, but rather was used by a certain group of people to mean ‘cool’ for a short period of time…it didn’t replace the original meaning.
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