Giving off bright light?
[QUOTE=bob++;
Finally what is up with everybody calling him, “Doc”? When they do that, I want to hit someone.
[/QUOTE]
There are a brand of shoes called “Dr. Martens” (pronaunced “Doc Martens”) so any doctor called Martin would get the nickname Doc Martin.
To be fair, the tea we Brits drink is a lot stronger than pretty much anywhere else I’ve ever visited. And tea still contains caffeine, maybe not as much as coffee but it’s there.
I don’t drink tea, but that makes me very unusual.
Wanker doesn’t have that specific meaning over here, nor does tosser - they just mean jerk. Otherwise you wouldn’t hear peope yelling “wanker!” to other drivers or football referees and the like. Tosser is much milder than wanker.
Isn’t the derivation of tosser fairly obvious? I mean, you kind of throw a certain liquid when you masturbate, or at least men do.
MPSIMS: that clip was filmed outside my office. (The building behind them from 0:25.)
It might also help to know that Brits are a lot more likely than Americans to affectionately use insulting terms to their friends. If a Brit calls someone a “wanker”, they might be really angry at them, or they might just be kidding around: You have to figure it out from tone of voice and context.
[The Goodies, from “Rock With A Policeman”] “If you’ve got bad luck and trouble, you can call me anytime,
You know my number-- (no no no!)
NINE NINE NINE!” [/The Goodies]
It is very true that the tea commonly available here in the States is weak and anemic. Alas. So what I do is go to an Indian or Middle Eastern market, and get tea produced for sale in those countries. The strongest I ever found was some tea that was the same red and yellow as a Lipton box, but all the writing thereon was in Hindi.
Just a piece of trivia, but the original idea for the show Doc Martin was Craig Ferguson’s. Though I think he had little to do with any subsequent writing or production.
I’m not British so others can correct me if I’m wrong, but I always thought that punter had a slight negative connotation in the direction of being a sucker. The sort of person who plays carnival games in hopes of winning a teddy bear. Basically someone the shop owner feels he can get money out of.
Which is probably not at all what Charlie Wayne thinks it is. So for him, a few other britishisms
Crisps are British for chips
Chips are British for fries
Biscuits are British for cookies
Near as I can tell what we call Biscuits are excluded from Britain by force of law unless they have enough sugar added to them so that they can be called scones.
Another word that gets some Britishers into trouble is that what we call erasers they call Rubbers. Much to the hilarity of my middle school art class when a poor foreign exchange student asked her classmate if he could hand her a rubber.
No, punter’s neutral. Informal, but not derogatory.
I don’t think it’s a problem. Not at all.
I never said that or implied that to the best of my recollection.
It just seems like a cup of tea is in the center of almost every activity that goes on in when Brits interact with each other.
I’m just wondering what it is about tea that makes it such a vital component of British life.
Americans drink a lot of coffee. But somehow, my impression is that coffee is not treated with the great reverence by Americans in the way that tea is treated by Brits.
Thanks ever so much. That was an excellent explanation and I surely do appreciate that.
I think it depends on who is using it. In the straight laced world of domestic tourism(i.e. my stint working at Butlins whilst a student) we were told never to use the word punter. I think this was perhaps as much to do with the promotion of corporate speak as it was the word “punter” being derogatory.
Punter is fairly derogatory. It is used by people who want to feel superior to their customers, who they see as an irritation that disrupts their life. Also used by people who regard customers as suckers to be fleeced. If I heard myself described as a punter I may well be offended.
You are stereotyping. I am British, and I almost never drink tea. No-one thinks the less of me for it.
*edges away from njtt
blackballs njtt
I guess it varies with punter, then. I wouldn’t use it to a customer, but then I wouldn’t describe a customer as a “bloke” to his face either - that’s not a derogatory term, but it’s too informal. I’ve never heard punter used as someone to be fleeced.
Yeah, probably the informality of the word is more the reason it is not used in many circumstances than its actual meaning. If it is a demeaning word it is certainly on the mild side. Perhaps its the Arthur Dailey effect. A dodgy second hand salesman being the type of person I associate with using the word.
There is the term “mug punter” which describes someone who consistently makes bad bets in the face of obvious reality. Indeed it could describe the rank and file that bet on the horses and dogs. The direct translation is “fool gambler”.
Talking of Minder, there was a brilliant interchange when Terry was smitten by a gorgeous female bookmaker, and she asked him what he thought his overall position of wins versus losses was over the years - and he replied that he thought he was probably about even. “Yes” she said, “they all think that.”
The Minder/Arthur Daly effect continues in popular culture decades after. This is a new ad for Ladbrokes, the UK betting outfit now operating in Australia. Absolutely none of the slang, or the stereotypical sharp male dress, or accent, are part of the local culture. But it is widely recognised.