# British words in code **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 4, 2014, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-words-in-code/690045 "2014-06-04T17:52:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2014, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-words-in-code/690045/61 "2014-06-07T13:15:54Z")
Wanker is fighting talk. Tosser not so much. ---
**Author:** ![toast\_pakora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3ec8ea/32.png) [@toast\_pakora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toast_pakora)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2014, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-words-in-code/690045/62 "2014-06-07T14:05:31Z")
> [@](#): > > The strongest I ever found was some tea that was the same red and yellow as a Lipton box It could have been Lipton Yellow Label which is a GREAT tea but generally not for sale in the US. I will look in the ethnic markets, thanks for the tip! ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2014, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-words-in-code/690045/63 "2014-06-07T15:08:40Z")
> [@Ken001](#): > > Wanker is fighting talk. > > Tosser not so much. Tosser has different BBFC rules than wanker, so yeah. OTOH, if a mate said to you “you fucking wanker” you’d take it as a friendly jibe. If he said “you fucking tosser,” it would seem more like he was actually insulting you. IME, of course. I can think of cases where this wouldn’t be so (dependant on tone of voice, etc) but there is a slight difference. ---
**Author:** ![mtullius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@mtullius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mtullius)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-words-in-code/690045/64 "2014-06-09T02:53:09Z")
> [@Charlie\_Wayne](#): > > Thanks ever so much. That was an excellent explanation and I surely do appreciate that. When in the Dr.'s surgery, when patients want tea, or one of the receptionists wants to get someone tea, they are talking about the drink. But sometimes when someone is coming home and they talk about having their tea they may be talking about the meal called tea. I’m not certain they mean the meal in this show, but I’ve watched a lot of other British shows and read books by British authors where it is clear they are talking about the meal eaten when one returns home from work or school. > **[Tea (meal)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_(meal))** > > Tea is an umbrella term for several different meals consisting of food accompanied by tea to drink. The English writer Isabella Beeton, whose books on home economics were widely read in the 19th century, describes meals of various kinds and provides menus for the "old-fashioned tea", the "at-home tea", the "family tea", and the "high tea". > Teatime is the time at which this meal is usually eaten, which is mid-afternoon to early evening. Tea as a meal is associated with the United Kingdom and so... ---
**Author:** ![mtullius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@mtullius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mtullius)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-words-in-code/690045/65 "2014-06-09T03:14:07Z")
And you didn’t ask but “Elevenses” is a meal as well that I’ve heard mentioned in the show. About the dog- there are two. In the beginning there was a big dog always coming into the surgery that I assumed had belonged to or befriended the previous doctor. Later there is a smaller dog named Buddy who I thought belonged to Auntie Joan. I found a blog though that claims they just substituted another dog when the first actor dog died. So maybe it is supposedly the same dog that Joan adopted to get it out of Martin’s hair. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-words-in-code/690045/66 "2014-06-09T03:20:55Z")
> [@SirRay](#): > > Wanker and Tosser as common lingo I picked up from Weebl and Bob, of course… Not [_Weird Science_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-a2YQ8f16QI)? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-words-in-code/690045/67 "2014-06-09T03:39:43Z")
Oh year that reminds me of two British usages that annoy me – “Surgery” – to mean a doctor’s clinic, where surgery is unlikely to be performed. This is doubly odd considering the intense mutual rivalry between physicians and surgeons in British medical tradition. (Surgeons even insist on being addressed as “Mister” because they are beyond mere “doctors”) And even more annoying, this gets extended to any profession that periodically holds open house – politicians talk of holding surgery to attend to constituent complaints. “Sorted” – you can “get breakfast sorted” or “get yourself sorted” and it has nothing to do with ordering things or separating them into groups. I wouldn’t mind so much if they took the trouble to say “get my situation sorted out” but no it’s just plain “sorted”. Yuk. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-words-in-code/690045/68 "2014-06-09T03:45:30Z")
> [@Charlie\_Wayne](#): > > Thank you all. > > I still would like to know why the Brits seem so obsessed with tea. It’s as if they all have a teacup implanted at the end of their lips. What does tea do for you? Does it have any good physical effect? Tea is a (mildly) addictive drug. Like all addictive drugs, its use is associated with repetitive/ritualistic behaviour. Note, the international consensus now seems to be that the word “addictive” is reserved only for something “that has begun to harm the individual or others physically, mentally, or socially”, so my use of it here is a missuse. I’m not aware of another word that has emerged to describe the identical phenomenon when it is not associated with harm. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-words-in-code/690045/69 "2014-06-09T04:25:41Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Oh year that reminds me of two British usages that annoy me – > > “Surgery” – to mean a doctor’s clinic, where surgery is unlikely to be performed. This is doubly odd considering the intense mutual rivalry between physicians and surgeons in British medical tradition. (Surgeons even insist on being addressed as “Mister” because they are beyond mere “doctors”) Nitpick: Minor surgery is carried out routinely in GP clinics. And I don’t think the physicians and the surgeons have an “intense mutual rivalry”. All doctors qualify in both medicine and surgery as part of their primary degree and it’s only later that they (may) specialise in one direction or the other. Those who earn a fellowship in one of the surgical colleges become “Mr” not to express their superiority over those who practice medicine, but for historical reasons; the surgical colleges did not, at one time, require their members to have a university degree. (The specialism grew out of the barber’s trade, remember.) For a surgeon, “Mr” is a mark of distinction not over physicians , but over those who practice surgery, but have not yet earned their fellowship. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-words-in-code/690045/70 "2014-06-09T05:06:17Z")
If you hear “septic” it is code for “piece of shit American”. It comes from rhyming cockney slang where “septic” with the implied work “tank” rhymes with “Yank”, being short for Yankee. ---
**Author:** ![jiHymas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/439d5e/32.png) [@jiHymas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jiHymas)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-words-in-code/690045/71 "2014-06-09T05:09:30Z")
You might be interested in [10 British Insults Americans Won’t Understand](http://www.bbcamerica.com/mind-the-gap/2013/02/28/10-british-insults-americans-wont-understand/) I remember from … somewhere … a British girl talking about how shocked she was hearing the word “wanker” on TV before 10pm, when there would be kids around. I’m sure the severity of it varies over time and from place to place. And tea is wonderful! If you don’t like it, fine, but if you don’t understand why it might be liked then it may be that you’ve never had the good stuff. Loose tea only, none of those floor-sweepings they put in tea bags. Start with Darjeeling, that’s a light, smooth tea that everybody likes. Work yourself up gradually to my favourite, Lapsang Souchong. ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-words-in-code/690045/72 "2014-06-09T07:08:35Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > “Sorted” – you can “get breakfast sorted” or “get yourself sorted” and it has nothing to do with ordering things or separating them into groups. I wouldn’t mind so much if they took the trouble to say “get my situation sorted out” but no it’s just plain “sorted”. Yuk. If an American says a machine is “Out of Order” is it repaired by sorting it ? 🙂 Its back to the days of the first mass production units… the weaving loom… if anything broke, say a few teeth of a gear, the machine may still produce some result, but the result is a mess, so the symptom was (the cards for example) were out of order… ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-words-in-code/690045/73 "2014-06-09T07:16:50Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > You are stereotyping. I am British, and I almost never drink tea. No-one thinks the less of me for it. No, he’s discussing the use of tea in fiction. It would be one thing if it only showed up in stereotypes from outsiders. They could just be ill informed. But it shows up in a ton of British works, particularly the show this thread is about. His question is why tea seems so important in these works. ---
**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:** [June 9, 2014, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-words-in-code/690045/74 "2014-06-09T07:31:02Z")
> [@China\_Guy](#): > > If you hear “septic” it is code for “piece of shit American”. It comes from rhyming cockney slang where “septic” with the implied work “tank” rhymes with “Yank”, being short for Yankee. Even though the rhyming slang has a connection with sewage, I don’t think this is correct - AFAIK, it just means ‘American’. In rhyming slang, there is not usually any semantic link between the meaning of the obscured term and the substitute word used for it. e.g. ‘Loaf’ = ‘Head’ (because ‘loaf of bread’ rhymes with head’) = it’s just a coded term - it doesn’t imply that heads are bread-like or vice versa. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-words-in-code/690045/75 "2014-06-09T08:09:38Z")
> [@China\_Guy](#): > > If you hear “septic” it is code for “piece of shit American”. It comes from rhyming cockney slang where “septic” with the implied work “tank” rhymes with “Yank”, being short for Yankee. We (Australians) call Americans “Seppos”, which is indeed from septic tank = yank, however the interpretation that we’re calling Americans “pieces of shit” is being too literal. The rhyme is cheeky and intended to be lighthearted (mostly. Some people wield this word like a weapon. I know Americans who’ve had it yelled at them in anger by people who were indeed likening them to pieces of shit. That’s not the spirit of rhyming slang; that’s just assholes being assholes). If someone friendly who has been nothing but nice to you says in a jovial voice “Seppo”, do not think for a second that they are insulting you. It’s playful. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-words-in-code/690045/76 "2014-06-09T08:24:27Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Even though the rhyming slang has a connection with sewage, I don’t think this is correct - AFAIK, it just means ‘American’. > > In rhyming slang, there is not usually any semantic link between the meaning of the obscured term and the substitute word used for it. > > e.g. ‘Loaf’ = ‘Head’ (because ‘loaf of bread’ rhymes with head’) = it’s just a coded term - it doesn’t imply that heads are bread-like or vice versa. Yeah, this. There’s nothing fruity about “apples and pears” (stairs). It’s just a rhyming phrase that is in common use or entered the public consciousness for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-words-in-code/690045/77 "2014-06-09T08:31:54Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > “Sorted” – you can “get breakfast sorted” or “get yourself sorted” and it has nothing to do with ordering things or separating them into groups. I wouldn’t mind so much if they took the trouble to say “get my situation sorted out” but no it’s just plain “sorted”. Yuk. You mean like the way Americans say “pissed” when they mean “pissed off”? Because to the rest of the English speaking world, “pissed” means “drunk”. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-words-in-code/690045/78 "2014-06-09T10:32:21Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Oh year that reminds me of two British usages that annoy me – > > “Surgery” – to mean a doctor’s clinic, where surgery is unlikely to be performed. This is doubly odd considering the intense mutual rivalry between physicians and surgeons in British medical tradition. (Surgeons even insist on being addressed as “Mister” because they are beyond mere “doctors”) Nope - you got it the wrong way around (sort of). In beginning of the 18th century, when physicians were distinguished by the possession of an MD, the possession of a medical doctorate entitled physicians and **no other** medical practitioner to be addressed as “doctor.” Eighteenth century surgeons, who were of course addressed as Mr, seldom had any formal qualification, in fact they were often graduates from the local butchers. As the status of surgeons rose, with the introduction of proper qualifications and the start of the Royal College of Surgeons, the title ‘mister’ became a sort of reverse snobbery. AFAIK female surgeons are happy to be called ‘doctor’ as they are often mistaken for nurses (Horror!) ---
**Author:** ![ItWasAGoodIdeaAtTheTime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e5b9ba/32.png) [@ItWasAGoodIdeaAtTheTime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ItWasAGoodIdeaAtTheTime)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-words-in-code/690045/79 "2014-06-09T11:17:59Z")
I was taught that ‘punter’ meant a prostitute’s client so wasn’t to be used in reference to customers. However, it’s normally used for gambling normally around me in East Scotland. Also, your normal UK ‘cuppa’ [cup of tea] does have caffeine in it- about half that of coffee, depending on how strong you like your tea according to The Guardian. [http://www.theguardian.com/news/2013/nov/27/caffeine-compared-coke-coffee-aspirin-chocolate-tea](http://www.theguardian.com/news/2013/nov/27/caffeine-compared-coke-coffee-aspirin-chocolate-tea) My mother prefers decaf tea now. It tastes the same when you get used to it. But I do find myself drinking more Diet Pepsi to find that caffeine elsewhere. The 12-25 year olds where I live (working class- not impoverished just rough) tend to cling onto those big cans of energy drinks like ‘Relentless’, even before school in the morning… There’s a certain bonding factor with tea in that it’s still usually made by hand. Someone needs to either fill a tea pot with bags and water or put bags in cups which takes time to brew, discussion on how people take it. Milk? Sugar? Plus the nigh obligatory biscuits to accompany them. Coffee, which is usually ‘instant’ stuff in a UK workplace, is far more pour and go in comparison. ---
**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-words-in-code/690045/80 "2014-06-09T11:22:23Z")
> [@mtullius](#): > > When in the Dr.'s surgery, when patients want tea, or one of the receptionists wants to get someone tea, they are talking about the drink. But sometimes when someone is coming home and they talk about having their tea they may be talking about the meal called tea. True. Down here in the antipodal isles we look forward to tea time. The evening meal. Posh types refer to dinner but for me, that is a midday meal - lunch. It probably has a Scottish origin given the south of New Zealand is Scotland redux. And for what its worth, morning break is “morning tea” and afternoon break is “afternoon tea”. Or smoko, but that is a workplace use which is fading. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-words-in-code/690045.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-words-in-code/690045.md?page=5)