About twenty years ago, I was in England. One of the things I wanted to do was to sample some of the English beers, so I went to a pub. I ordered a beer (a nice bitter, as I recall), and stood at the bar.
Sme others were standing at the bar, and soon one other gentleman and I had begun a conversation. Nothing serious–the weather, and other small talk. He could tell by my accent that I was not British, and so was somewhat handicapped by my non-knowledge of local football (soccer, of course), and which he seemed to be an expert on. But he seized on another topic of conversation when I lit a cigarette:
“So, you like fags, do you?”
Once I had got over my shock, and all had been explained to me, we had a good laugh. But for a few minutes there, I was wondering what kind of place I’d walked into.
I though that was English-English. I’ve got a friend who talks about working in off-licences in Edinburgh, whereas I would talk about ‘bottle-shops’. And I use ‘chippie’ to mean roadworker. I worked as a chains(wo)man for a summer, and I was refered to as ‘the chippie’, so I think it can also mean ‘the person who does the most menial, least skilled bits of a manual labouring job’
We’ve taught our daughter to use the British application of “fanny”. One day, my mother-in-law was changing her diaper when my daughter asked “Grandma, do you have a fanny, too?”, to which my MIL replied “Yes, honey, but mine is a lot bigger than yours.” :eek
One of these days we’ll get around to explaining how we use that word.
Something else I’ve just found out: - There are two Mildenhalls. One in Suffolk (WWII airbase) which is pronounced as it is spelt and one in Wiltshire which is pronounced ‘mine-all’.
Don’t people ask for the WC - the water closet anymore?
When I lived in England - 20 years ago now you were able to get sorted out, now you just get sorted.
“Mausel” is Mousehole in Cornwall, also a pied a terre.
I frequented a chinese chippy in a west indian district of Bristol (Brissle) where you were asked: "sore vinegar? hau saus? (salt & vinegar, hot sauce)
Bad can mean bad or the opposite. I love the American “My bad”
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