# British English question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 24, 2007, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-english-question/389177 "2007-01-24T00:23:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-english-question/389177/21 "2007-01-25T23:01:34Z")
[QUOTE=ZipperJJ] In America…[these](http://www.commonsensepatterns.com/images/csp/542CT%20Jumper.jpg) are jumpers. I have been boggled for ages as to why they were so popular in England. Now I know…they’re not! 😉 [/QUOTE] Looks like a pinafore to me. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-english-question/389177/22 "2007-01-25T23:16:26Z")
[QUOTE=Beware of Doug] Who is Dervla Kirwan and why does her name look better spelled backwards (Alvred Nawrik)? [/QUOTE] She’s an Irish actress, a familiar face on TV over here, who also does breathy voiceovers in commercials for upscale retailer Marks & Spencer’s food range, which are almost pornographic in their close-ups of various white liquids melting suggestively over perfectly formed fruits and vegetables. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-english-question/389177/23 "2007-01-25T23:21:40Z")
I hadn’t twigged at all that it was her doing those ads, **Usram**. All I know is that they only count as ‘almost pornographic’ to guys who like Nigella. Yuk. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-english-question/389177/24 "2007-01-25T23:23:08Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] I got the ready meal and the Chateauneuf Du Pape ('61 actually) but forgot to look at the jumpers. Will try again later when I get my edamame and noodle lunch. [/QUOTE] Ok, none of the sweaters/jumpers/pullovers were labelled with anything other than “Per Una”, “New stock”, or “Design no. 39484904”. Poo. Sleb spot: I was in the Crown in Belfast back in 1996 when Dervla Kirwan walked in the side door. Being mildly famous, all eyes in the bar turned towards her, whereupon she slipped on the wet floor and fell on her arse. The crowd was too polite to lauch. So, she’s not much of a jumper\*. Shortly afterwards, Canary Wharf was bombed (no connection). \*Acknowledgely lame. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-english-question/389177/25 "2007-01-25T23:27:24Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaMan] I hadn’t twigged at all that it was her doing those ads, **Usram**. All I know is that they only count as ‘almost pornographic’ to guys who like Nigella. [/QUOTE] No, the fact that she’s Nigel Lawson’s daughter, and that he named his daughter Nigella, FFS, kills it for me. Back to Dervla describing margarine melting on a bit of broccoli. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-english-question/389177/26 "2007-01-25T23:30:59Z")
You guys actually _like_ the M&S ads? I can’t believe it. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-english-question/389177/27 "2007-01-25T23:33:15Z")
[QUOTE=Usram] Back to Dervla describing margarine melting on a bit of broccoli. [/QUOTE] Oh, do put some effort in, boy: _‘This isn’t just margarine. This is fridge-ready organic ready-churned margarine, made from the pressings of fresh Channel Island virgins, dripping across brisk sprigs of steamed-head broccoli’_ ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-english-question/389177/28 "2007-01-25T23:33:23Z")
[QUOTE=Usram] No, the fact that she’s Nigel Lawson’s daughter, and that he named his daughter Nigella, FFS, kills it for me. [/QUOTE] One of those beautiful ladies, perhaps, that Viz describes as being “a little bit too much like their old man”, and therefore might “fell your timber”. Personally speaking, the paternal connection would not be an obstacle to my lust-filled food-oriented lovemaking with the stupidly-named but breathtakingly lovely Nigella. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-english-question/389177/29 "2007-01-25T23:36:39Z")
Sorry, **jjimm** , but lust for Nigella seems a little too Freudian…what with every third sentence being either about her mother or her family. Just sayin’. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-english-question/389177/30 "2007-01-25T23:40:25Z")
Nonsense. This is not just an ex-Tory minister’s stupidly named daughter. This is a voluptuously sensuous, intelligently sophisticated, curvaceous, ruby-lipped gourmet ex-Tory minister’s stupidly named daughter… ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-english-question/389177/31 "2007-01-25T23:44:55Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] This is a voluptuously sensuous, intelligently sophisticated, curvaceous, ruby-lipped gourmet ex-Tory minister’s stupidly named daughter… [/QUOTE] _“…and I like to dress this with a little heated slaver of Jjimm, which is just what my mother loved to do for us…”_ ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-english-question/389177/32 "2007-01-25T23:46:08Z")
Hey, I don’t object to the Tory bit. Nigel Lawson was a pretty good chancellor, as I remember. You actually got the impression that he might be good at mental arithmetic. It’s just the utter weirdness of inventing a girl’s name so that you can name your daughter after you. And that she looks dead like him. Although she’s a bit fatter than him these days. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-english-question/389177/33 "2007-01-25T23:52:25Z")
Oh, I fully agree about the utter preposturousness (if that ain’t a word) of making up a name like that. But that isn’t her fault. The ridiculous spoon-licking non-recipes (because they don’t work) is what annoys me. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-english-question/389177/34 "2007-01-25T23:59:09Z")
**Usram** , I might have to ask you to step outside. :mad: [QUOTE=GorillaMan] _“…and I like to dress this with a little heated slaver of Jjimm, which is just what my mother loved to do for us…”_ [/QUOTE] Works for me! “…this is just like you taste of the dishes you get when you’re holidaying in a little villa in Tuscany… and if you don’t have time to prepare it, just get the nanny to mix the ingredients up and pop them in the fridge for when you get home…” (real quotes, combined for impact) ---
**Author:** ![Caridwen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c89c15/32.png) [@Caridwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caridwen)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-english-question/389177/35 "2007-01-26T00:05:20Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] Thanks! So the knit-of-wool zip up the front with a hood is simply a hooded cardigan? (WhyDad was being silly and “posh” last night and told the baby to get her “jumper” and I said I didn’t think that was right. True anglophiles must get these piddly details right, you know! 😃 ) [/QUOTE] I can go along with calling a sweater a jumper. But if people in the U.S. start using the word “posh” I think I’ll open a vein. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-english-question/389177/36 "2007-01-26T00:05:56Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] …just get the nanny to mix the ingredients up and pop them in the fridge for when you get home… [/QUOTE] _…alongside the Nigella-Juice I prepared this morning, because I know how much Jjimm likes to have that family feeling when he gets home from a long hike…_ (Dammit, there’s got to be a button to push, otherwise this just ain’t natural) ---
**Author:** ![lizardling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lizardling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizardling)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-english-question/389177/37 "2007-01-26T01:51:17Z")
[QUOTE=Beware of Doug] The cardigan itself (at least the buttoned, non-hoodie original) is falling out of favor, thanks to [grandpa](http://images.google.com/images?q=grandpa&svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&start=20&sa=N&ndsp=20). You only have to get to page two of 175,000 Google Images hits before you start seeing cardigans. There are three on that page alone. [/QUOTE] :dubious: Cardigan patterns seem to be all over knitting websites, or at least that’s my impression. For example, see [Knitty](http://knitty.com/archive.html) Cardigans are a major category in there - check the ‘what do you want to knit’ drop-down menu. …or am I being wooshed? ☹ ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-english-question/389177/38 "2007-01-26T03:52:29Z")
[QUOTE=Caridwen] I can go along with calling a sweater a jumper. But if people in the U.S. start using the word “posh” I think I’ll open a vein. 😉 [/QUOTE] We have to start using the word “posh”. Beck’s just moved to L.A… ---
**Author:** ![Caridwen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c89c15/32.png) [@Caridwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caridwen)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-english-question/389177/39 "2007-01-26T17:29:28Z")
I’ll call her Vicky. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-english-question/389177/40 "2007-01-26T18:07:45Z")
The word “sweater” does seem kind of unpleasant when I come to think of it. Why would we name a garment after the notion that you’ll become hot and sweaty from wearing it? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-english-question/389177.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-english-question/389177.md?page=3)