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30 more Britishisms used by Americans
BBC News ^ | 17th October 2012 | BBC News

Posted on 10/17/2012 3:54:15 AM PDT by the scotsman

'The Magazine's recent article about the Britishisation of American English prompted readers to respond with examples of their own - here are 30 British words and phrases that you've noticed being used in the US and Canada.'

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Canada; Culture/Society; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: britishisms; english; language
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To: the scotsman

The BBC is a bunch of wankers.


21 posted on 10/17/2012 5:20:13 AM PDT by matt1234 (As Obama sowed in the Arab Spring, so he is reaping in the Arab Fall.)
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To: the scotsman
We say those words better, and they sound even better with a southern drawl.
Can they drawl? I didn't think so. /s
22 posted on 10/17/2012 5:22:46 AM PDT by MaxMax
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To: the scotsman

Muppet is one of the greatest words ever... Bugger is right behind it :-)


23 posted on 10/17/2012 5:34:13 AM PDT by Wyatt's Torch (I can explain it to you. I can't understand it for you.)
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To: the scotsman

We lived in the Caribbean when my kid was young and he started school there, lots of British ex-pats on the island, so his friends were either British or Caymanian. He still uses many British terms today and he’s a grown man.

But when we moved back to the states he was still in elementary school. On the island, and to the Brits, a “rubber” is a term for an eraser. So
I had some explaining to do when he asked the teacher if he could borrow a “rubber.”


24 posted on 10/17/2012 5:44:38 AM PDT by memyselfandi59
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To: the scotsman

I’m not sure I think this is such a great list. Some of these words I’ve always used, like frock, and I don’t think row meaning fight is really a Britishism, I’ve always heard that usage.

A word not on the list is dear, meaning expensive, my grandmother (from Ireland) always used that word. She used frock too, of course, so maybe that is why it is familiar to me.

Now, there are some words that have different meanings over here, so I don’t think these Brit usages will ever become popular.

One on the list is bum. We use bum to mean a no-good person or a vagrant. I don’t know what the brits use for those meanings.

Another Brit word that is always confusing is jumper, meaning sweater. My grandmother never used jumper for sweater, and believe me she sewed me a lot of jumpers, so it might have come up. I don’t know if that is not a term used in Ireland or if she just was careful not to use it. I still don’t know what the brits call the frocks we call jumpers.

I always use the phrase bother, as in “bother it, bother me” etc. Of course I got that from Brit books, but it fits very well in some instances when even “darn it” would be too strong.

There, I wasn’t keen on the list, but I did bang on and on about it, didn’t I?


25 posted on 10/17/2012 5:45:35 AM PDT by jocon307
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To: the scotsman

Winston Churchill: “Americans and British are one people separated only by a common language.”


26 posted on 10/17/2012 5:49:13 AM PDT by Einherjar ( Asking only workman's wages I come looking for a job But I get no offers...)
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To: the scotsman

I grew up over there and don’t see many of the words being used here very much. Perhaps gobsmacked and cheeky? “You cheeky wee brat” was a favorite at home. :)

Maybe it depends on where one lives here.


27 posted on 10/17/2012 5:55:44 AM PDT by bronxville (Margaret Sanger - “We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population,Â)
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To: memyselfandi59
...to the Brits, a “rubber” is a term for an eraser...

My late wife was Australian and, shortly after we were married and living at Fort Hood, Texas, we went to the PX to find some erasers tops for my mechanical pencils.

[I'll bet you can see where this is going, can't you?]

Anyway, I was back looking through the stationary department for them and my wife went up to the front desk to ask a sales person where they were. So, we're about a half-PX apart when I heard her calling me across the store...

"Love, the lady says that the rubbers are over by the pharmacy department ..."

Ah, the joys and surprises of the English language ...

28 posted on 10/17/2012 5:56:53 AM PDT by BlueLancer (You cannot conquer a free man. The most you can do is kill him. (R. Heinlein - "If This Goes On"))
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To: the scotsman

Born in 1935, I grew up in New England, and at that time much of the Brit lingo still prevailed.

Mud guard comes to mind for fenders. But much more my mind-housing-group cannot grab hold of at the moment.

My grandmother (died 1945) used a lot of this old English; she always called herself a Jickey (guessing at the spelling here).

She had come from Egland via Ireland...(maybe the other way round?)

Never found any explanation for “Jickey”.

Lotta storefront Fish-N-Chips around in those days, tires spelled tyres, etc. Lotta Brit actors in the films, etc.

Semper Watching!
*****


29 posted on 10/17/2012 6:28:26 AM PDT by gunnyg ("A Constitution changed from Freedom, can never be restored; Liberty, once lost, is lost forever...)
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To: goldstategop
"Only buggers and dafts speak the Queen’s English!"

HA, HA, HA!

30 posted on 10/17/2012 6:37:23 AM PDT by hummingbird (Lather, Rinse........BUT DO NOT REPEAT - REPEAT IS A WASTE - A SCAM!)
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To: the scotsman
I have been hearing bespoke.
31 posted on 10/17/2012 6:42:39 AM PDT by gasport
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To: Daveinyork
"I’m off to fetch a bit of tea."

In some southern states (sic?), that would be kind of like saying:

"I'm fixin' to get me some ice tea." (of course, that is the informal)

Ha!

ice tea sometimes pronounced "ahs tay"

32 posted on 10/17/2012 6:43:15 AM PDT by hummingbird (Lather, Rinse........BUT DO NOT REPEAT - REPEAT IS A WASTE - A SCAM!)
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To: MaxMax
"We say those words better, and they sound even better with a southern drawl.

Can they drawl? I didn't think so. /s

HA, HA, HA!

Cherish the southern drawl, lest it become a dead drawl!

Cherish the Southern Belle drawl, too. You can get a lot of things using THAT drawl.

Southern Belle drawl conversations last far longer than the Queen's English conversations because the drawl really s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-s out conversations.

Y'all know what I mean...

33 posted on 10/17/2012 6:53:47 AM PDT by hummingbird (Lather, Rinse........BUT DO NOT REPEAT - REPEAT IS A WASTE - A SCAM!)
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To: Ignatz; Scotsman

>> Knock me up sometime, we’ll share a fag. <<

I used to live in a flat directly across the hall from a friendly and sincere young Englishwoman. Neither of us cared for fags. But I can assure you, I would go over and knock her up several times a week!


34 posted on 10/17/2012 7:01:20 AM PDT by Hawthorn
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To: hummingbird

That’s to keep from going round the bend and being quite barking mad.


35 posted on 10/17/2012 7:04:17 AM PDT by Daveinyork
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To: hummingbird; MaxMax

>> Cherish the Southern Belle drawl <<

Sorry to say that it’s dying fast. Go to almost any rural hamlet in the Deep South, and you’ll find that the teenaged girls now are trying to speak “Valleygirlese.” I predict that in 50 or 60 years, the southern accent (at least among white people) will be just about dead.


36 posted on 10/17/2012 7:08:23 AM PDT by Hawthorn
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To: jocon307

“One on the list is bum. We use bum to mean a no-good person or a vagrant. I don’t know what the brits use for those meanings.”

‘Tramp’ or ‘pikey’.


37 posted on 10/17/2012 7:16:43 AM PDT by ccmay (Too much Law; not enough Order.)
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To: Ignatz
Knock me up sometime, we’ll share a fag.

You share your own fag,pal.I'm gonna have me a cigarette.

38 posted on 10/17/2012 7:33:52 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Ambassador Stevens Is Dead And The Chevy Volt Is Alive)
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To: jocon307
One on the list is bum. We use bum to mean a no-good person or a vagrant. I don’t know what the brits use for those meanings.

"homeless person"








or "tramp"

39 posted on 10/17/2012 7:34:32 AM PDT by Oztrich Boy (Monarchy is the one system of government where power is exercised for the good of all - Aristotle)
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To: cunning_fish

“Chav” is an acronym for “Council House And Violence.” I’ve been dating a British gal for a while and she gets me rolling with her use of British slang. Two of my favorite terms are “punchup,” meaning a brawl and “earwigging,” meaning to secretly listen in on a private conversation.


40 posted on 10/17/2012 7:42:09 AM PDT by Rocco DiPippo
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