Missed the edit window. Should be “Orange Pekoe tea”
Here’s another (now rather dated, but in its day a useful way to express disagreement or at least scepticism):
Yorkshire pudding should be anything but dense.
I don’t use this expression, but I find the Britishism “fell pregnant” interesting.
Their whole act required brain bleach. A married couple playing a naughty schoolboy and his dad - bleeargh.
Here is a useful instructional ‘how to’ video on the British way of doing things:
[quote=“Mangetout, post:106, topic:725626”]
Here is a useful instructional ‘how to’ video on the British way of doing things:
[/QUOTE]Fuck off you fucking cunt!
(Does this need a smiley? Nah, fuck it does.)
Here’s a nice brain-cleansing picture of The Krankies with John Barrowman
[quote=“Mangetout, post:106, topic:725626”]
Here is a useful instructional ‘how to’ video on the British way of doing things:
[/QUOTE]Hahahahahahaha!
Brilliant!
In some book I once read by Anthony Burgess, the character always said “For cough”. Took me along time to figure out what he was saying.
More comments: when and where I lived, “innit” was considered very low class, like glottal stops.
One very irritating habit of “The Footie” announcers was referring to the game as “fooball” (sorry, I can’t think of a way to spell it. The first syllable rhymes with “put” except without the T sound).
One Britishism that was maybe invented by me
To describe social media from the viewpoint of the social media dinosaur (me)
Twitface. or sometimes I use Twatface - with its other partner - Facetwat
Always makes other folk smile with recognition of what I’m trying to get across, but I haven’t heard anyone else use it.
I think we should all use this term to describe people whose lives revolve around social media, I do.
Then you will have helped spread a brand new Britishism
In the years I lived in England, I never once heard the word “bint”. I was occasionally called a bitch (as in “that dirty fucking Yank bitch” - I worked nights in a pub), but didn’t mind that much…somehow, “bitch” to me implies grudging respect. My great fear was of being called a “cow”. Though some comics refer to themselves as “silly cows”.
I have now worked with 3 people (Americans) who speak with heavy British accents and use Britishisms at work (MEEgraine headache and the like). I asked subtle questions and found out that one of them had a couple of British relatives, the second changed planes at Heathrow once and the third has never been out of the U.S. Hmmm…:smack:
I thought of another word I like. I only use it at home when talking to my husband, because I’d sound silly using it in public. It’s “scarper.” Again, there isn’t quite an American equivalent. I use it to mean when someone runs away from a situation where they had been up to no good, as in “If a cop shows up, those drunks yelling in the street are going to scarper.” At least, I’m pretty sure that’s the precise meaning.
Skedaddle. Scram. Vamoose.
You could get away with it. It’s in the Urban Dictionary.
Dropping the T (or double T) in the middle of such words is common in many British dialects - it’s sometimes sort-of-replaced by an unstressed stop.
Going a bit off-direct-topic; but, put in mind of another British author’s adroit handling of the f-word in published text. Eric Newby’s The Last Grain Race– chronicling the author’s voyage on the eve of World War II, from Britain to Australia and back, as a seaman on one of the last-remaining full-rigged sailing ships in commercial service. This ship sailed under the Finnish flag-- part of a fleet based in the Aland Islands, a Swedish-speaking part of Finland. The ship’s formal working language was thus Swedish; but the crew comprised numerous nationalities, many non-Swedish-speaking: general communication among the crew was in – often badly messed-up, not first-or-second-or-third-language – English. All conversations rendered by the author, are in quasi-English.
Opportunely, the Swedish for “foresail”, is “fock”. Newby takes advantage of that, using in his reported “English” conversations, “fock” as a substitute for the f-word and its derivatives – “focking”, “focker”, etc. The book was published in 1956 – a bit surprising that it got through the then censorship. One figures that either the censors didn’t have a clue; or they cottoned on, but figured that the obscuration was sufficient at its job.
“Knackered” - I know it means exhausted, but what is the literal meaning? I always feel like it is a little off color (off colour?), “something dirty” as we said when we were children. Is it?
Isn’t a Knacker’s Yard a slaughterhouse?
Yes, and ‘Knackers’ are testicles, so by association, it was a bit of a rude word.
Knackered also means ‘broken’.