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6 Sept 2007

Americanisms?

Americanisms and their British Slang Equivalents

1. Cooties. Instead say Lurgy, both mean an unspecified contagious disease.
2. Booger. Instead say Bogey,meaning crusty stuff in your nose (a piece of nasal mucus).
3. Buttinsky. Instead say Nosy Parker, meaning a nosy person or a busy body.
4. Doohickey. Instead say a Thingamajig, meaning a word used for an unknown item.
5. Fanny pack. Instead say Bum bag actually say neither! meaning a pouch like bag.
6. mom-and-pop. Instead say the corner shop meaning a small family run business.
7. Plumber butt (crack). Instead say Builders Bum, not that different eh? meaning handy man's arse is hanging out of his pants, normally not a nice site! except for Tisha's fella.
8. Rutabaga. Instead say Turnip or Swede! (just a swede actually)meaning vegetable Brassica napus napobrassica.
9. Stool pigeon. Instead say Grass, meaning a police informer.
10. Popsicle. Instead say Ice Lolly or Lolly ice meaning A trademarked brand of frozen juice, or flavored ice on a stick.
11. Ornery. Instead say Cranky meaning irritable, crotchety or trouble making.
12. Ladybug. Instead say Ladybird meaning a beetle.
13. Jack off. Instead say Erm 'having a wank' , meaning look it up yourself!

I hope you enjoyed my attempt to bring us all closer together by focusing on daft things!

44 comments:

  1. :: chuckle :: Lolly ice isn't really right: ice lolly or lolly would do fine. A lolly (or lollipop) can also mean those candy lollipops you can get.

    Linda, ex-pat Brit.

    Happy TT--mine will be up tomorrow.

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  2. Love it! One of my teacher friends was dating a guy from England, and she had her students asking to go to the "loo"

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  3. being part of non English part of the world I'm totally lost here...
    Happy T13!
    Cheers!

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  4. Right on the money except for the little correction Linda already pointed out. You could keep going for a long time with this without ever going near Websters corrections to English spellings which while often logical did speed up the split of our common language in two :-)

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  5. How fun! I'll have to remember some of them.

    www.chelleyoung.com

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  6. Of some I knew the American, some the English and a few times both. I think I'm using both American and English English. ;-)
    My TT shares Thirteen (quotes from) lyrics by Robbie Williams.

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  7. Those are great informations you've just listed. Who knows I may visit one day and would need them.
    My T13 is up too.

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  8. Cool list - I've only heard the American phrases on tv shows...

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  9. "Nosey Parker" is just lovely! Much friendlier than "buttinski."

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  10. "Nosey Parker" is just lovely! Much friendlier than "buttinski."

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  11. "Nosey Parker" is just lovely! Much friendlier than "buttinski."

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  12. I think you'll find that Rutabaga is a swede but not a turnip. Re #13, you can also have a Barclays!

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  13. Hmmmm, interesting stuff. Funny how one word can have so many meanings. Happy TT.

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  14. Claire...that was too funny!
    Brien loved the reference to his crack. ;)

    Great TT.

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  15. Hey! I use both variations of some of those. Whoda ever thunk I was bi-lingual?

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  16. oh. now i get it. totally. ha ha ha

    you little popsicle...

    smiles, bee

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  17. Bat bogey hex...eeeeuuuuuuu!~

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  18. What did you say Claire? Great list. I always love it when you do these. Have a great TT. :)

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  19. And you kept the list so clean! Or is that going to be next week's list?

    Interesting list, will need to send it on to my son who will be spending a semester in England this year sometime.

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  20. well, I have learned a lot of stuff!!!!

    happy TT!!!!

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  21. I knew the last one because...well, Keith Richards called someone a wanker...and me being me I had to find out what that meant...and well, I did!
    Thanks for the laugh -- that was great!
    Happy TT!

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  22. I was right on a couple of them!! = ) Score! And we say thingamajig too!

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  23. Thanks for the translation; being a Canadian, our slang tends to have British leanings. An homage, I suppose, to our colonial past. Great post. There were a handful I wasn't familiar with - like bum bag? Who knew!

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  24. Isn't a "bogey" a score in golf? So this must be a Scottish thing...
    ;^)
    I knew 4 of them! Surprise!
    Love these....

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  25. Enjoyed the list. I am neither nor. English is not my first language so i am always learning.
    Happy tt!

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  26. I'm off to the loo....have a great day!

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  27. I always say "thingamajig" and "bogey" so I guess that makes me part British, right?

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  28. Bogey was used when I was little...and thingamajig is used here too...I don't say it though. But bogey...yeah.

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  29. I have a BOGEY, and I thought it was a LURGY on my NOSEY PARKER. I also put myTHINGAMAJIG into a BUM BAG and went to the CORNER SHOP. On the way I saw a BUILDERS BUM and it made me CRANKY because he was HAVING A WANK. At the CORNER SHOP they had SWEDE on special but I noticed it was covered with LADY BIRD and became GRASS. Therefore I got me an ICE LOLLY and went over yonder.

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  30. Great list...I was wondering about Ladybug. But after my daughter studied them in school last year, I found out that their official name is ladybird beetle, so the Brits are more correct in this case!

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  31. Well, I can't top Sarge's comment, so why even try? Best comment ever.
    Kudos, Sarge.

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  32. Great list. Our landlords years ago in Nashville ,Tenn, were from England and they said some really funny stuff all of the time. Me and my hubby would get home and be like "What the heck did he just say??" He was always calling his son a wanker. What is that???

    my 13 is up

    http://momworksathome.blogspot.com

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  33. LOL .....now I'll know what all your blogpals are saying. Thanks for the educational post! :o)
    Rx

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  34. We actually use 4, 8, & 11 here. Happy Thursday!

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  35. The U.S. and Britain -- two great nations separated by a common language....

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  36. Sarge is awesome! LOL

    Great idea for a TT, I like it when ideas continue into the next week.

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  37. Hey! look what i've just found in the network htp://www.CheckMessenger3.com to find out who deleted you from MSN without noticing it.

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  38. Great list! This is the stuff they haven't taught us at school! *g*

    Best wishes from Germany and happy TT!

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  39. I love your list. We say doohickey, thingamajig, and whatchamacallit interchangeably. I'll have to look up whatchamacallit and see where that was adopted from.

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  40. Great follow-up to last week's list. Number 9 is the only one I wasn't familiar with. I'm loving the linguistic education. Thanks, and Happy TT.

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  41. So why do we call both languages English? :) We really should have a different title for what we speak in America.

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  42. Jendi, we do - it's called Spanish!

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  43. "Cranky" is itself an Americanism. It means "eccentric" in the UK.

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