British words in code

Factual Questions
1

Lately, I’ve started to watch this British sitcom called “Doc Martin”.

For anyone who doesn’t know it, it’s a lot of fun and kind of warm-hearted too. Ummm … actually, it’s really superb and I’m pretty sure that if you’re an adult, you’ll like it very much. But for anyone who isn’t British, so much of the vocabulary is a real mystery.

I know that I could lookup many of these words. In fact, I tried to do that but was disappointed with the results I found.

For example, two of the most common words used in this show are “tosser” and “wanker”. They’re both clearly a negative adjectives to describe a person. Before I looked them up, I expected they would be very close to, “asshole” or “idiot”. But, when I looked them up on the site called “The Best of British” (British Slang for Americans), it said they both meant the same thing and that was fairly close to “asshole”. But on the program, I seem to remember someone described masturbation as “wanking” or “giving it a wank”. They also labelled someone who liked to masturbate as a “wanker”. So, I’d very much prefer to ask you all - especially those of you who once lived in Britain.

I can’t remember all the words I’d like to ask about. So, I hope it would be OK for me to list a few at a time and hopefully, some other people might also like to ask about some words or phrases and I might be able to get a better picture of things as we go.

So, first off, do “wanker” and “tosser” really both mean someone who is a “jerk” or “asshole”?

Next, one word that really bugs me is “brilliant”. It seems that today, everything is almost always “brilliant”. But how many things are really brilliant? If it means the same thing as it does in American, then it is surley overused.

Next, is a “punter” or maybe I am mis-hearing it. Maybe it’s a “bunter” or a “funter”. The website says it mean something is “cool”. But I just don’t believe it could mean something so silly. It would seem to mean a customer who is over-anxious to buy something.

Next, the doctor sometimes asks people to call 999. Is that the equivalent to our 911? Is it fire, ambulance and/or police? Or just limited to one or two of those?

Last one for now is a “snog”. Does that really just mean “sexual intercourse”?

Thank you.

2

Back to “tosser” for a sec.

Does anyone know the derivation? What is it that was being tossed?

Also, I should explain that I meant to title this thread something to do with British Slang.

3

Yes, pretty much. It’s my number 1 insult when someone cuts me in traffic.

At least in my opinion actions and events tend to be ‘brilliant’ rather than things. A goal can be brilliant, as can a film. I wouldn’t think of a car as being brilliant. But yes, the word tends to get overused.

You mean “punter”. Not that I use it so much myself, but I believe it means “customer”. A waiter will tell another to go help a punter if there’s a customer waiting for help. Not sure if the word carries negative connotations though.

Yes, it’s the British equivalent to 911 and covers police, ambulance, fire and coastguard. Newer alternatives such as the pan-European 112 or 0118 999 881 999 119 7253 are becoming increasingly popular though.

I wouldn’t think so. To have “a snog” is just kissing passionately. If that evolves into actual intercourse, I would call it “a shag”.

4

Yes.

So what? Overusing words is brilliant. Brilliant!

Just means a customer, client, or sometimes somebody who is placing a bet with a bookmaker. Or it can be used as a general term to refer to a person, as in “Look at that big punter over there” - in this case usually pejorative, but in the sense of a customer, not at all.

It certainly doesn’t mean “cool”. Are you sure you’re not confusing it with “pukka”?

5

Batistuta,

Thanks very much. I could have been very embarassed when using “snog” and “shag” incorrectly. That could have created a problem from which it would have been quite difficult to extricate myself.

Colophon, thank you kindly as well.

If anyone else would like to use this thread to ask about British words and phrases, please feel free.

6

That’s when you “lie back and think of England.” :smiley:

7

Toss, in this context, means wank. They’re synonyms, both meaning masturbate.

They’re slightly more specific than the general purpose US “asshole”. A tosser or wanker is someone who talks a lot of crap, someone who verbally masturbates, as it were.

By the way, I’m Australian, but wanker and tosser are commonly used and generally understood here - I suspect that like most things Americans call “British English” it’s actually more like “non-US English” or, as I prefer to call it, English.

8

Well, they do have better looking drivers.

9

Dial 999.

10

I discovered this back around Easter this year: “Tosser” originally comes from “Tosspot,” which is both someone who drinks a lot (“tosses the pot”) and a character in a British pageant thing called Pace Egging, which happens around Easter.

Nowadays, apparently, masterbaters are called “tossers” because they “toss” their willies around.

11

Try the Urban Dictionary.

12

Over the years “tosser” has moved in meaning. A “toss pot” is a drunkard - tossing back pots of beer. And a tosser a derivation from that. But now, it seems to have merged with wanker.

Punter is indeed derived from a customer of a bookmaker. To “take a punt” is to place a bet. So someone who bets is a punter. It then becomes a person who has paid money for something for which the product or service is of unknown quality as “they pays their money and they takes their chances”. So patrons of a film/music/play all become punters. Then it becomes more widely applied.

13

I should point out to the Doc Martin is very much set in Cornwall (the far south west), where i live (recorded in Port Isaac, about 35 miles away) its use of slang may also be slightly archaic or local. One very local use if “gon Bodmin”… meaning gone mad, Bodmin is where the big mental hospital was. All the slang swear words are also fairly tame by normal everyday language down here too…

14

Punt is originally from cards and meant a person who plays against the bank at faro, baccarat, etc. Punter had the same meaning.

A century later it had developed the sense of someone who bets on the horses, a gambler

In the 20th century it developed a whole bunch of other meanings

So, a versatile little word. (All info from OED)

15

Calling someone a wanker and tosser yes means there a jerk

Snog means a passionate kiss usually with tongues

A punter means a customer and is usually slang as well for a prostitute using it for her/his customers

Yes 999 is your 911

Lastly brilliant means what it has always meant

16

I haven’t watched a lot of Doc Marten but given the curmudgeonly nature of the main character is it possible that he is using the word brilliant sarcastically?

17

I first read “punter” (as customer) on the UK technology site “The Register” well over a decade ago - it’s usage clearly meant just a customer for hardware or software (if perhaps a bit over-eager for, say, the then-latest video games); no gambling implied.

Wanker and Tosser as common lingo I picked up from Weebl and Bob, of course - the implications were definitely that (Weebl, mostly) was once again being an idiot and a jerk.

Didn’t the sarcastic usage of “Brilliant” arrive on American Airwaves big-time with the Guinness Commericals with the “paper-cutout animation” brewmaster brothers?

18

Tossers and wankers are, I think, less effectual and less actually malicious than jerks or assholes (or arseholes). They are basically just useless, annoying people.

Tosser has meant wanker (i.e., masturbator) to me at least since the 1960s.

19

Indeed, he does.

Similar is the use of the word “awesome” by the younger set in the US. It can be used as a positive, or sarcastically as a negative, it’s a general purpose word! In that respect, awesome is brilliant!

20

Yes, there’s a world of difference between:

“Brilliant! :)”

and

“Brilliant! :smack:”