# Calling All British **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 11, 2004, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-british/233613 "2004-03-11T02:23:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![flamingbananas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f4b2a3/32.png) [@flamingbananas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flamingbananas)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-british/233613/1 "2004-03-11T02:23:19Z")
This is proably a dumb question from a “stupid american” but im dying to know. What does “pip pip for now” really mean? I’ve read some british books and I adore that phrase, which is much better then the normal “seeya!” but I really want to know what it means. And yes I know it is a degreeting. I’m not THAT dumb 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-british/233613/2 "2004-03-11T04:32:31Z")
degreeting? Is that what you use to degreet countertops and stuff? ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-british/233613/3 "2004-03-11T05:13:52Z")
A Bertie Woster and Jeeves version of “Ta ta for now”? (The latter came from the British radio show It’s That Man Again.) “Pip pip” is usually something the upper classes would say in literature. And “degreet”? Is that for real? ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-british/233613/4 "2004-03-11T05:15:51Z")
Ah, dang this keyboard. I meant Bertie **Wooster**. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-british/233613/5 "2004-03-11T12:03:26Z")
What-ho **flaming**! just a bit of nonsence don’tchyaknow. Toodle pip old chap! ---
**Author:** ![AngelicGemma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/439d5e/32.png) [@AngelicGemma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngelicGemma)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-british/233613/6 "2004-03-11T12:05:13Z")
You _do_ know that no one British actually says that, right? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Jennyrosity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2bfe46/32.png) [@Jennyrosity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennyrosity)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-british/233613/7 "2004-03-11T12:13:16Z")
Jolly well take take that back you rotter! Us Britishers most certainly do say things like that, whilst taking high tea in our castles. You, madam, are a bounder and a cad and deserve a jolly good thrashing. Toodle pip. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![paulberserker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@paulberserker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paulberserker)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-british/233613/8 "2004-03-11T12:19:57Z")
it’s like when fictional people say ‘chin chin!’ while toasting each other with drinks too. Man, I hate that 1930’s Jeeves & Wooster crap. And please, please be reminded that _no-one_ talks like that, apart from fools at Galas in Henley on Thames. And I hate them too. Jenny, I dare you to talk like that all day on Saturday, and see how long it is before you get thrown out de pub. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Lars\_Aruns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c68b51/32.png) [@Lars\_Aruns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lars_Aruns)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-british/233613/9 "2004-03-11T12:20:10Z")
> [@Jennyrosity](#): > > Jolly well take take that back you rotter! Us Britishers most certainly do say things like that, whilst taking high tea in our castles. You, madam, are a bounder and a cad and deserve a jolly good thrashing. Toodle pip. 😉 Aye, luv, bloody sup’ficial, that was! Sometimes even counter-sereotypes can be b_ll_cks! Now excuse while I go off for a Geoff! **Jennyrosity** , long time no read! How are things in Devon? I’m nice and dandy on the shores of the Tyne now. I really valued your advice on housing in Newcastle. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-british/233613/10 "2004-03-11T12:21:09Z")
Fully paid-up card-carrying Brit reporting for duty _sah_! Nobody but _nobody_ British (or more accurately English) says “pip pip” - in the same way that nobody says “howdy pardner” in the US. The only people who say it are Americans imitating English people. It rather confused me when I first heard it. What what! ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-british/233613/11 "2004-03-11T12:22:38Z")
> [@paulberserker](#): > > it’s like when fictional people say ‘chin chin!’ while toasting each other with drinks too. I say look here old chap, I say “chin chin”! It’s Italian you see. ---
**Author:** ![paulberserker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@paulberserker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paulberserker)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-british/233613/12 "2004-03-11T12:28:28Z")
Italian? really? Reet, am off t’sarnie shop to get mescen a big old 'am sanwitch, tha knows. Al sithee old cock. Put wood int’ oile! ---
**Author:** ![Jennyrosity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2bfe46/32.png) [@Jennyrosity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennyrosity)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-british/233613/13 "2004-03-11T12:37:43Z")
> [@Lars Aruns](#): > > **Jennyrosity** , long time no read! How are things in Devon? I’m nice and dandy on the shores of the Tyne now. I really valued your advice on housing in Newcastle. Things in Devon are good, if a tad cold (not like it’ll be cold in Newcastle or anything!). Glad to hear you’re settled - where did you end up living? Next time I go home we can meet up for a micro-Dopefest! Weird isn’t it? I realised this morning that by next month I’ll have been living in Plymouth for five years, which according to some folk means I’m a native.If you’d asked me I’d have said about 3 or four. And yet I still think of Newcastle as home, and probably always will. You can take the girl out of Tyneside… Anyway, apologies for the hi-jack. You can have your thread back now, old chap. ---
**Author:** ![Lars\_Aruns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c68b51/32.png) [@Lars\_Aruns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lars_Aruns)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-british/233613/14 "2004-03-11T13:09:50Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > I say look here old chap, I say “chin chin”! It’s Italian you see. Just go easy with that in Japan, mate, it apparently means “Small penis” or something in the local idioma. What about sticking to “Prosit!” like our Empire-ruling ancestors did? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Hokkaido\_Brit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d26b3c/32.png) [@Hokkaido\_Brit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hokkaido_Brit)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-british/233613/15 "2004-03-11T14:55:26Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > I say look here old chap, I say “chin chin”! It’s Italian you see. And it’s Japanese for “willy”. It thrilled my seven year old skinny when we heard it used as a toast by a large Italian family seated next to us in a restaurant in France! ---
**Author:** ![Hokkaido\_Brit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d26b3c/32.png) [@Hokkaido\_Brit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hokkaido_Brit)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-british/233613/16 "2004-03-11T14:58:21Z")
> [@Lars Aruns](#): > > Just go easy with that in Japan, mate, it apparently means “Small penis” or something in the local idioma. What about sticking to “Prosit!” like our Empire-ruling ancestors did? 🙂 Oops! I should have read to the bottom of the thread. It isn’t a small penis, just a regular sized one! Chin-chin is the word used by little boys and politer men. Maybe similar in meaning and force/vulgarity as “willy” in English. What is the fairy tale most guaranteed to send my bilingual boys into paroxysms of tits-and-bums-mirth? “No no, by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin, I WON’T let you in!” Do you think that the original author knew Japanese? It takes on a whole new meaning… ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-british/233613/17 "2004-03-11T17:41:19Z")
I have two questions: When you say someone is **in the bath** , does it mean the person is: in the bath **room** (doing anything that might be done in that room) or in the bath **tub** (taking a bath) ? I ask because Bridget Jones describes Mark once or twice this way, and we don’t usually hear of men taking baths in the U.S. – it’s usually little kids, or women trying to de-stress. Second question: In 19th century lit, one’s aunts and uncles are referred to by their surnames (“Uncle Gardiner,” “Aunt Reed”), not “Aunt Jane” and so on. Is this still done? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-british/233613/18 "2004-03-11T17:46:10Z")
In the bath means actually in the bathtub. Most people shower these days, but in a lot of older flats there is only a bath. Also, there’s no stigma about men taking baths in the UK (of which I am aware). As for the Aunt/Uncle thing - it’s first name in my experience. They were much more formal in the 19thC. ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-british/233613/19 "2004-03-11T17:51:21Z")
“In the bath” means what it says. That person is physically in the bath. No-one in Britain “goes to the bathroom”, we generally go to the “toilet” or various colloqualisms of same. And blokes can bath why on earth not? The “going to the bathroom” phrase had to be explained to me when I stayed with friends in the 'States as a kid. It really isn’t self explanatory. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-british/233613/20 "2004-03-11T17:57:19Z")
> [@Jennyrosity](#): > > You, madam, are a bounder and a cad and deserve a jolly good thrashing. Toodle pip. 😉 Yo, I thought only men could be bounders and cads? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-british/233613.md?page=2)